Collaborators: Eduardo Martorelli, Hugo Bellini, Igor Cortinove, Marta Onofre, Paula Saito, Pedro Domingues Silva, Ana Julia Chiozza, Luisa Cleaver, Marie Lartigue, Thiago Benucci, Julia Jabur Zemella
Huma Team: Beatriz Bertho, Fabio Miranda, Felipe de Gerone, Rafael Rossi
From the architect. In a city like Sao Paulo, the address signifies a large part of the qualities associated with urban life. Vila Mariana is a neighbourhood where mixed use ensures the vitality of daily activities, it is endowed with public transport, commerce and leisure. The land is located at Calixto da Mota Street, lug central, close to Domingos de Moraes Avenue, which ensures extensive views. Tall buildings that generate gaps allow enjoying these visuals surround the lot.
Proposed scheme has assumed a structure capable of switching the opening direction of the apartments, ensuring the best orientation for all: views, aeration and sunshine. This strategy is systemic in a metropolis whose towers current model are isolated in their small lots, establishing a giant and generic city silhouette. This deployment respects all neighbours, because it preserves appropriate distances between apartments.
In practice, the operation is the opposite of generic projects stamped on any site, indiscriminately. The building adapts itself to the lot with slopes in two directions. The street level difference (more than two meters from one to another) facilitates access to two underground parking lots, with reduced earthwork.
Above the highest access level is located the residents leisure area with a ballroom, collective laundry and gymnastics, which in its coverage houses a swimming pool and solarium. Thus, this escalation results in a construction that extends common areas, respecting original topography and neighbouring buildings. The front setback, required by planning legislation, has been incorporated as a garden offered to the city.
The horizontal volume establishes limit and folds vertically, forming one block with 12 floors of apartments. The other tower has 11 levels and it is a little set back to the street. Unit’s entries connect these two towers, which is also the waiting area for elevators, opened to the city, with light and fresh air. The reference floor plan has four apartments of 44,00m2 and a larger apartment with 67,00m2.
Generous balconies increase apartments, protected by translucent roll panels, to control incidence of sun, wind and rain. All penthouse units have access to a solarium, by its balconies. The construction will be in reinforced fair-faced concrete, in other words structure, finishing, volumetry and expression come of technical quality and rationality of constructive systems. Each material was conceived from the perspective of its qualities: suspended ceilings in wooden boards, inner panels in plaster (for thermo-acoustic efficiency) and glass opening to the balconies.
The last twenty-odd years may have seen the remarkable comeback of cities, but the next twenty might actually be more about the suburbs, as many cities have become victims of their own success. The housing crisis—a product of a complex range of factors from underbuilding to downzoning—has made some cities, such as New York and Los Angeles, a playground for the ultra-wealthy, pushing out long-time residents and making the city unaffordable for the artists, creatives, and small businesses who make vibrant places.
While it is impossible to cast a national generalization, in a broad sense, the cities’ loss could be the suburbs’ gain. Many young people and poorer residents are moving to the suburbs, although not necessarily because they want to. This is creating a market on the fringes of the city for a more vibrant mixed-use development based on public transportation and urban amenities. The traditional American suburban model of sprawling single-family homes and clusters of retail is not necessarily the only way these territories are developing, as even the big box mall models are taking new forms.
In some ways, the urban and the suburban are flattening, as Judith K. De Jong argues in her book New SubUrbanisms. Culturally, formally, and conceptually, they share more than we typically think. While suburban residents crave quasi-ersatz urban experiences, many in the urban areas are living as if they are in the suburbs, in more insular developments that minimize their interactions with the city and other citizens. In the suburbs, on the other hand, there is potential for an increase in mixed-use and mixed-experience living.
Adding to this new “intersectional suburb,” which we consider in our feature, are the demographic shifts that are continuing to upend the notion of classic post-war suburbs. We examine how a recent report by the Urban Land Institute surveys the new landscape on which the formation of new suburban projects will take place. A recent study by urban planner Daniel D’oca and his students at the Harvard Graduate School of Design even called this phenomenon “black flight.”
What makes these changes so loaded with potential to provoke new types of suburban development and living is that the suburbs already cover an enormous amount of land in the US. University of Michigan professor of landscape architecture Joan Nassauer cites Major Uses of Land in the United States, 2007, a 2011 US Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service study that shows that 3 percent of all land in the US is covered by “cities,” while upward of 5 percent is taken up by suburbs.
This means that while there are new tracts of land being built, much of this experimentation will be transforming what is already there, but with new technologies and understanding of what a healthy urbanism looks like environmentally, culturally, and economically. It is an incredibly fertile ground for architecture and urban design to imagine how to retrofit the suburbs and make them part of the next generation of cities.
The Six apartments by Brooks + Scarpa is Skid Row Housing Trust’s first development outside <a href='https://archpaper.com/2017/01/measure-hhh-los-angeles-homelessness/'>Los Angeles’s downtown area</a> and is designed around a central courtyard to facilitates social interaction, passive ventilation, and natural lighting. Image Courtesy of Skid Row Housing Trust / Tara Wujcik
When discussing his vision for the future of cities, Vishaan Chakrabarti cites Paul Baran’s 1962 diagram “Centralized, Decentralized, and Distributed Networks,” which argues that a distributed, rhizomatic network of nodes and connections is the most resilient way to organize a system. If the affordability crisis in urban areas drives more people out of city centers, then maybe mixed-use centers could be located all around a periphery, creating new conditions that are very well suited for the new technologies and environmental challenges that face the suburbs.
Urban farming in suburban Phoenix becomes the basis for <a href='https://archpaper.com/2017/01/dsgn-agnc-phoenix-spaces-of-opportunity/'>an entire community hub</a>. Image Courtesy of DSGN AGNC
As the suburbs adapt to technologies—such as self-driving cars and solar power—to update their inefficient and problematic infrastructures, they will have new opportunities to address new transit options that connect them to the rest of the urban landscape. They will also be fertile ground for more industrial and commercial uses.
New plans for Market Mile north of Houston, Texas, include <a href='https://archpaper.com/2017/01/swa-airline-improvement-district/#gallery-0-slide-0'>revamping the existing flea market</a> with food trucks, street furniture, and increased pedestrian access. Image Courtesy of SWA
These changes in the suburban landscape can only be fruitful for architects and urbanists if they allow themselves to see the suburbs not as a “deplorable,” ecologically destitute place, but rather as a design challenge that offers a culturally rich and diverse set of problems that can help a variety of families in varying socio-economic conditions. Once we shed our preconceptions, we can start to analyze them on the terms that have already been set, and we can start to remake the suburbs in the image of a progressive, 21st-century city.
From the architect. V-House was built on one of the highest-lying parcel of Üröm – Rókahegy, a hilly area North-East of Budapest, at the end of 2015. We were assigned to design a two-generation family house while keeping eye on the best possible utilization of land installation indicators, and creating a demanding and innovatively built environment that adequately represents the characteristics of the suburban living environment of today.
It was important not only for the designers, but also for the client that typical building proportions, roof form and substance use of the suburban living environment can be displayed in the building design and mass shaping, all of this reinterpreting the traditional, adding contemporary flavour to the building’s appearance and raising the quality of the built environment of the settlement as well.
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Together with our client we wanted to show that with the habitual gabled form and proportions, playing with the amount of the traditional building materials (plaster, wood, glass) a new and demanding suburban architectural quality can be created as opposed to a peculiar “Mediterranean” style that became prevalent in Hungary during the past decades - in spite of lacking local roots.
We knew at the beginning of the planning process that we would follow quite a simplistic design, emphasizing the spirit of the place and the superior panoramic view rather than the shape of the house. We were to ensue the "less is more", "simple and great" principle. After all, this schematic building form, this house-archetype fitted into the idea that refreshes and makes the traditional modern.
That is why the form-shaping of the building seems not very complicated (and it was not a goal) and everyone recognizes the archetype of the traditional gabled building.
Elevation
Thus, we deprived the form of all frippery and allowed the walls, the pitched roof and the glass surface opening towards the street dominating the outer view. The architectural details are, however, the pledge of freshness and re-interpretation. Elaboration of each node required significant technical knowledge, a lot of coordination and strategic technical planning, so that we could create a new quality with no compromises.
The building opened with south glass walls towards the street is orientated to the city, so that the living room and the bedroom have a perfect view of Gellérthegy (an iconic hill on the Buda side of Budapest), the Parliament, the meandering Danube and the whole bustling downtown of Pest.
In terms of engineering we speak about a low-energy, A + energy rated building designed to use renewable energy sources. The energy aspects of the wall and roof meet the near-zero energy classification standards. Solar panels are placed to certain individual parts of the building, this is how we produce the energy demand of the domestic equipment. For the needs of heating / cooling and hot water there is an air-to-water heat-pump system that works on GEO-tariff. The building components are individually prepared for solar panels. The electric meter spins back and forth, that is, the excess energy generated by solar panels is fed back to the ELMŰ (Budapest Electricity Company) system, and when the house needs extra energy you buy it from the ELMŰ system. The apartments have a smart home control installed. With the temperature, humidity and wind sensors the building can control itself, it operates the shielding, the heating and cooling systems and other consumer electronics.
The Norwegian Coastal Administration has revealed visualizations of the world’s first full-scale ship tunnel that would link two fjords on either side of the Stad Peninsula in Norway, allowing ships to bypass the “most exposed, most dangerous” waters on the Norwegian coast. With the project now in the feasibility stage, architecture studio Snøhetta has produced a series of rendered design concepts to help the project gain traction within the Norwegian government.
The Stad Ship Tunnel would measure 1.7 kilometers long, 36 meters wide and 49 meters tall – large enough to accommodate full-sized boats such as large cruise ships, sailboats, and coastal steamers. Traffic would pass through one way at a time, but even with a waiting period, the tunnel would chop off significant time and hazard from the existing route around the peninsula. Estimates show that between 70 and 120 ships could use the tunnel on a daily basis.
Working with Olav Olsen of Norwegian consulting firm Norconsult, Snøhetta has designed the two entrances to the tunnel using the material palette of the peninsula, with both wire-cut and blasted stone walls making up the opening arches. On the Moldefjorden side, the design would utilize the steep landscape to create a dramatic entrance. A more sensitive, terraced opening would pop out at Kjødepollen, where a small village is located.
The idea for building a ship tunnel through the Stad Peninsula has been discussed for over 100 years, with original plans documented as far back as the 1870s. Historians have even discovered that Vikings often preferred to portage their ships over the 1.7 kilometer stretch than sail through the dangerous seas.
Initial cost estimates for the project come in at 2.3billion Kroner (~$270 million USD). The Norwegian Coastal Association is hoping to receive a final political decision soon. If approved, construction could begin as early as 2019.
From the architect. Built on a 925 m2 plot in the centre of Limhamn in southern Sweden, House L1 consists of two apartment blocks containing seven homes, centred around a private courtyard. Within the courtyard on the left hand side is a communal swimming pool, which is hidden from the entrance.
The street-facing building harmonises in scale with the characteristic brick cottages of the former fishing village. The block consists of five split-level apartments laid out over four levels, ranging from 72-141 m2. To the back of the plot, the second block contains two three-storey apartments measuring 167 m2 and 207 m2.
Axonometric
Each home is laid out over two or three levels. Four of the apartments have mezzanines with double-height sliding windows measuring up to five metres, offering optimal natural light and the possibility to interact with the courtyard, which is integral to the design. Although each home has one or more private outdoor areas – such as a large balcony or terrace – the courtyard offers residents the possibility to meet and interact.
Each apartment is different, in terms of both layout and design. Within the two three-storey apartments, behind the kitchen lies a double-height area with a skylight, while one of them also has a private atrium and a garage. In the adjacent building, some homes feature small lounge areas with open fireplaces placed near the bedrooms.
There are some common features throughout, for example, the choice of materials and the orientation of the bedrooms, most of which are north facing. Oak flooring is used on the upper levels, with sandstone for the kitchens and bathrooms, as well as private terraces and the courtyard, which link the interior and exterior. The project was completed in 2012.
One of the most important materials used in the project was the Indian sandstone, used in the kitchen, bathroom and ground floor indoor areas, as well as outdoor spaces. The stone was used to create a seamless connection between indoors and outdoors. Indoors, the stone is smooth and soft, while the stone in the courtyard was blasted to create a rough surface that provides a better grip when wet.
New renderings and information have been revealed for SHoP and West 8’s Schuylkill Yards masterplan envisioned for University City in Philadelphia. Announced last March, the project comprises 14 new buildings on a 14-acre site off the Schuylkill River and around 30th Street Station, the country’s third busiest Amtrak station.
Focusing on public areas, the plan calls for 6.5 million square feet of revamped green space and streetscapes, including the elliptical Drexel Square; a “shared esplanade” along JFK Boulevard; new cyclist infrastructure on the main thoroughfare of Market Street; and an indoor public space called “The Wintergarden.”
Also on Market Street, a 627,000-square-foot office tower named “3101 Market East” and a 247,000-square-foot hotel will be constructed.
In total, the scheme is estimated to cost $6.5 billion, offering an abundance of new amenities to the neighborhood of University City, so named for its many universities and institutions including the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University, and several other science and medical institutions.
Working with Drexel University and master developer Brandywine Realty Trust, SHoP and West 8 will transform 14-acres of existing underutilized land with 6.5-acres of public open space to create a collaborative mixed-use neighborhood in Philadelphia 's University City submarket.
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) has released plans for a new mixed-use urban district for Philadelphia's 30th Street Station Precinct. In response to projections showing significant increases in transit activity in the coming decades, the project calls for a transformation of the existing Beaux Arts train station and surrounding neighborhood of University City.
From the architect. Located on a small cross street to Dorival Caymmi Avenue in Itapuã, the house that bears the same name as the fascinating neighborhood of Salvador was born by the necessity of the owner to live and work in the same place. The house holder, Dj and company owner that provides physical structure for small and medium events, wanted above all a practical residence, durable and easy to maintain.
Planta Baixa
The estudiofarol proposal was for the building to be executed in two stages, the first one (currently built)is the initial embryo of the residence together with the space destined to the company and the second stage would be the enlargement of the residence in a superior floor that will be executed in the future.
The house is located on the west side of the building, opening to the north, south and east faces. The neighboring building on the west together with the blind wall of this face protect the house of the solar incidence from the west of the location but allows the access of indirect illumination coming from the north and east faces. The northbound front recoil makes it possible to park both the owner's vehicle on the east side and the truck´s company on the west side, which is higher so that the trunk of the truck is protected from rain while unloading.
Sol Inverno Poente
Sol Verão Poente
The access to the company is done directly in front of the building while the access to the house is done by the side through a strip of reinforced concrete plates that lead the user to the living room and service area.
The entire layout of the needs program, extremely compact, is made using as few internal divisions as possible. The part of the residence has only the walls of the toilet that make the living room / bedroom division while the company area has only one wall that isolates the toilet from the deposit and administration that share the same space. There is also an external service area that connects the kitchen and the leisure area and is slightly away from the company wall so that ventilation of the same is protected.
Perspectiva
The constructive system was designed for a little and easy maintenance, with all the structure apparent, as it came out of the forms of plasticized plywood receiving only three coats of silicone to protect it from the weather. The slabs have small swings of 50 cm, around the whole building, to protect the masonry and the frames of heavy rains.
It was decided to use ceramic brick masonry, eliminating some stages of the conventional system such as slabs and plaster. Conventional masonry was used only on the walls where there would be hydraulic installations that would need to be embedded.
The electrical and rainwater installations were left apparent and painted black to contrast with the brown of the pottery and the white of some of the internal walls.
All the frames of the house were executed in a simple system of anodized aluminum with a black color except the large access door to the company that was executed in galvanized steel structure and the door leaf in perforated plate in the same material, both painted in synthetic enamel in red color. The perforated plate allows a constant renewal of the air inside the deposit minimizing possible typical odors of this type of area.
The Itapuã house is part of a line of thought of the estudiofarol that seeks the fundamental aspects of construction stripping it of any superfluous or unnecessary aspect in order to bring the architecture to its fundamental role of shelter.
In Istanbul, a city with few existing green spaces, studio DROR is proposing something radical – a park filled with innovative interventions as a way to encourage collective experience and gathering. Envisioned as “a love story between people and nature,” the Parkorman forest park will give people a chance to swing through the forest, play in giant ball pits, relax by reflecting pools, and even bounce several stories above the ground on canopy-level trampolines.
Located six miles north of the city center, DROR was faced with the challenge of providing an active incentive to draw residents out to the park. The solution was to preserve the existing forest life, and supplement it with delightful and surprising structures that allow people to play.
“We set out to create a park that dissolves the anxiety and fear that often accompanies an unfamiliar environment through a network of conditions that fosters unconditional love,” explain the architects. “We imagined the most profound experience delivered through the lightest touch; an effort that preserves the lush forest and leaves every tree in place, as mandated by the city.”
The masterplan is broken into five main zones, each designed to provoke their own emotion. Interaction and play are fostered in each zone through the series of interventions: At the park entrance, “The Plaza” introduces visitors to nature and provides open space for gathering and socializing; in “The Loop,” swings and hammocks float above the forest floor as a relaxing retreat from urban life; giant ball pits, inspired by the vibrancy of a Turkish spice market, make up “The Pool”; at “The Chords,” adventurous guests have the chance ascend into the treetops on a twisting footpath, and bounce on giant trampolines located within.
For a more reflective experience, “The Grove” offers a maze-like sculpture trail leading through the landscape. “The Fountain of Clarity,” a cube-shaped frame from which water showers down on all four sides, uses a sensor module and hydraulic piston to open upon approach, allowing the structure to envelop visitors in a watery room.
From the architect. It is an office building that uses CLT(Cross Laminated Timber) as a structural and finishing material. Based on the three concepts of showing the cross-section of CLT, giving a finish with CLT and using CLT in curves, I have explored ways to utilize CLT's unique nature.
By using an arch-shaped continuous frame made possible with CLT panels, the building has been given a vault-like, gentle and warm working space.
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In addition, with the building’s continuous arch, I have aimed to make it suggestive of the original landscape with the climbing kiln in Shigaraki, which is famous as a town of ceramics, so that the local residents can find the building appealing.
From the architect. The project is a very common type of apartment in Taiwan, the customer hopes that we can give a solution for the problem of the darkness in the interior space, and provide enough storage for kids toys, picture books and most camping equipments .
Floor Plan
In this regard, we try to use a smaller partition wall to distinguish the space, make it more spacious and open, and the use of wall space to produce storage cabinets, without affecting the daylighting function.
From the beginning of the discussion, the choice of main material is focus on the use concrete from the original space, and leave it as floor and wall. the light showing a warm and simple feeling through the texture of concrete which is slightly rough . this approach can make reduce tones house feel warmer and more open.
As a reference point, concrete becomes “the driver “who decides all the other materials. The extension part of the facade is made of beige, and the interior is made of grey oak wood. Both of them provide the necessary contrast, warmness and richness for the smooth texture of concrete.
From the architect. The house was designed for a couple and children on 97 m2 of relatively a small ground in an urban district of a city center.
The site is surrounded by newly built apartment buildings and various types of houses mixed together. Across the street, there is a park where parents can have their children play.
For this project, it was requested to build a house that incorporates both functionality and design properties even if it may be small, while maximizing the environment of the site.
The appearance has been designed to include both massive and floaty feel that is generated by manipulating volume and proportion of configuration. The piloti space under the cantilevered eaves is used as a parking space, porch, and approach to entrance.
The space between the porch and the border of the street is used for planting to effectively display the building as well as to give a feel of linkage with the park.
A small room positioned at the center of the site is used as a atelier by the client.
The room is connected to the entrance hall to secure a smooth traffic line for residents. An opening is provided on the approach side so that one can check who comes in/out or what happens outside.
The internal space on the second floor that has secured a maximum height in accordance with the roof shape is produced by light coming in from a top light and space continuity, which results from eye-conscious design.
Floor Plan
The distinctive large window facing the park is composed of a high window that introduces enough natural light, and an opening that takes in gentle light and breeze while blocking eyes from outside. he house fixture designed to be incorporated in the window frame connects the spaces, and fills the room with dignity.
Scenes of children appearing at the small window facing the park resemble little birds poking their heads out of a nest, which looks so adorable. This house produces various beautiful scenes in daily lives of the residents.
From the architect. Scientist, philanthropist and entrepreneur, Dr. K Anji Reddy's passion for drug discovery and his pioneering contributions to making medicines affordable are legendary.
Diagram
Born in Tadepalli in the Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh, India, in a farming family, he grew up watching his father make herbal pills that he distributed free. Little did he realize the prophetic significance of what he saw.
Dr Reddy’s life cannot be summed up in one word – his life was rich and made up of multiple strands. In his public life, he was a scientist, an entrepreneur, a pioneer, a collector and a philanthropist who cared enough to turn away from conventional modes of giving in order to make the less privileged feel secure in a skill that they were encouraged to master. The Dr. Anji Reddy Memorial was conceived in order to celebrate his life.
Dr.Anji Reddy Memorial takes us to contemplate different aspects of Dr Reddy’s life, its unique and bold message: no matter how humble our beginnings, it’s up to us to transform our lives and reach for something larger than ourselves. Dr Reddy’s life is marked by an intense attentiveness to learning and application. His scientific life was engaged in ways that could alleviate suffering by making affordable medicine. He also stands tall as an example of a deeply compassionate human being who actively tried to rethink the idea of charity and how to unlock potential in the disadvantaged. This memorial presents multiple ways of navigating Dr Reddy’s life, following it and tracing its patterns in order to reach an understanding of the lessons it holds out.
Plan
Client requirement was to create a memorial for Dr.Reddy that would stand an inspiration for the forth coming generation. Location chosen for the memorial was a 1.2 acre piece of land in a 100 acre site.This location was chosen to immortalize the path taken by Dr.Reddy from his residence to the lab.Location identified with its existing trees became the reference to the design. Avenue of silver oaks,grid of gulmohar trees, avenue of Ashoka trees ,avenue of palm trees and colonnade of casuarina was transformed to entrepreneurial path, path to samadhi, pradakshna path, path of discovery, path of philanthropy respectively.
1.Entrepreneurial Path: Avenue of silver oaks portrays Dr.Reddy’s life journey from a humble start to a successful enterpriser with his bike and car is displayed either side of the path with a gradual slope. A walk along this path would motivate and inspire one to set and reach higher goals.
Diagram
2.Path of reflection void/samadhi: A grid of gulmohar trees with a linear water body culminates into his samadhi.As one walks towards the Samadhi, the waterbody reflecting the sky seen through the cut in the wall behind, evokes a sense of his absence .A void in the center of samadhi represents the end of an era to the realm he has built and the presence of his absence in the lives he inspired and nurtured.
3.Pradakshana path:It is around the samadhi along avenue of palm trees.The cycle of his life “from” nature and “to” nature is represented through walls and voids between the palm trees.The voids eventually increase in number reaching towards the sky and finally merge into the sky.
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4. The Path of discovery and enlightenment along the Ashoka trees shows his journey of challenges and growth from a farmer’s son to an entrepreneur. The texture of flooring from rough, semi polish, polish to merging into lawn finally culminates into Bodhi tree which is a symbol of Enlightenment.
"I came up with a little help here and there and whenever possible, I try to return it. If by giving help you can transform it into opportunity for someone to show his ability, it is the greatest satisfaction" -Lt.Dr.Kallam Anji Reddy
6.Water channel and Spout: The overflowing water reaches out as an offering of oneself, a prayer, a defining aspects of Dr. Anji Reddy was his desire to give back to society he has grown from.
It is a narrow colonnade of casuarina, lies along north-south axis.it is a glimpse of display panel engraved on stone wall along the casuarina trees axes to explain the giving nature of Dr.Reddy.
Dr Reddy’s memorial, a non-building set amidst the nature, connects and communicates with its natural surroundings creating a serene atmosphere.
From the architect. This project is a multipurpose space that combines a studio and exhibition space featuring furniture for sale. The property, a unit in a row of old townhouses, is located in Kaohsiung City's Zuoying District. The 36 year-old house has a retro, warm and inviting exterior and retains the split-level floor plan popular in the 1960s. Past occupants have made additions according to their needs, including a sheet metal shack and windows with iron grating.
The first floor of the building is 11 ping (approximately 36 square meters). It has a narrow facade and hence the interior does not let in a lot of light, obscuring the building's original beautiful exterior. We removed the interior staircase, the iron grated windows facing the street and the sheet metal shack (which was a kitchen) added to the back of the first floor. We spruced the space up by adding exterior stairs and a courtyard, in order to let the old house regain its original style and charm.
Diagram
Diagram
The space was originally designated as a studio and exhibition space for Japanese furniture, but because of the floor plan, the building's three rooms were all separated by solid walls and blocked by staircases. The entire space was fragmented and incoherent. First, we removed the solid walls separating the staggered floors and moved the stairs outdoors to expand the interior space of the structure so that light from the courtyard can enter. We expanded the space by using glass which allows light to penetrate freely, thus improving interactivity. Now, each space can interact with their neighbors. In order to highlight the beautiful characteristics of the townhouse, such as the circular chamfer of the windows, we used the color white as our base to create a clean, uncluttered space for exhibiting furniture.
As for the stairs, they are now the only thing connecting the individual floors. In order to add something new to climbing up and down stairs, we added a slant to the French windows on the second floor so that people will step on a triangular platform when they move outside via the exterior stairs. This also creates a livelier facade. The path through the house is strung together by the exterior stairs so occupants and visitors weave in and out, enjoying the excitement of exploring all the various boxed spaces.
From the architect. Artrovert is our project to design a studio in a peri-urban artists' colony, Kaladham, in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh. The 280 sqm. studio is built on a 300 sqm trapezoidal plot which is one of 216 arranged in an octagonal grid. Our client-collaborator is a multi-media artist whose politically charged works interrogate binaries, challenge representation and explore the anti aesthetic. Equally unconventionally, her vision for her studio was not the typical introverted artist’s “cave” but rather an extroverted residency where the creation of art and the living of the artist are shared with her precinct. Acutely aware of Kaladham’s location at the urban edge, she hopes such an outward expression and blurring of territory would lay seeds of well-knit social networks for a growing community.
Program The studio required accessible, large volume workspaces that would invite an immersive experience of art and yet be rugged enough to withstand its production. A mezzanine study overlooking the studio provides a vantage point to view as well as to reflect. The top floor is designed as a two room residence for artists for short duration stay while a small ground floor residence at the back houses studio helpers. While a private garden is planned at the back as a spill-out for the helpers, a sloping, faceted front lawn is opened up for theatre-style public screenings and talks. The rooftop residence is arranged around a generous terrace.
Form and Materiality The form articulates the creation of space as an unraveling rather than as a construction, revealing as much as concealing. Two materially contrasting yet filial bands ( of distressed concrete and ceramic mosaic) loop and coil forming the various spaces of the program across multiple levels. These are book-ended on one side by the neighbour’s wall and with a grey steel armature on the other. The armature itself is designed to act simultaneously as a gallery, working scaffolding and circulation space as well as to provide views of the exhibits within from different heights. The panels are detailed to swivel so that the finished art on them may be turn outwards and shared publicly. This also creates the possibility of an externally created mural being turned inward for viewing as a composition of individual panels and multiple permutations of such arrangements. Tall and narrow interstices are glazed against the outside while vertical slits cut through the internal volumes. Thus the design hopes to offer multiple views and varying perspectives through a multilevel space formed as a conversation between binaries.
Performance Passive thermal performance is at the heart of the architecture. The slits within the tall volumes vent air heated through thermal stacking while the massive floors and walls shade against solar heat gain during the warmest time of the summer day. The low slung winter sun however penetrates the south-west facing studio warming the workspaces and rooftop terrace. The swivelling panels act as louvres that let in the easterly monsoon breeze decreasing internal humidity levels. The studio thus maintains comfortable thermal levels throughout the year.
In this essay by the British architect and academic Dr. Timothy Brittain-Catlin, the very notion of British postmodernism—today often referred to as intimately tied to the work of James Stirling and the the thinking of Charles Jencks—is held to the light. Its true origins, he argues, are more historically rooted.
I grew up in a beautiful late Victorian terrace with ornamental brickwork, shaped ‘Dutch’ gables and pretty arts and crafts stained glass windows – and so I didn’t think then, and I don’t think now, that I had much to learn from Las Vegas. It turns out that I wasn’t the only one. Of British architects who made their names as postmodernists in the 1980s, not a single one would say now that they owed much to Robert Venturi, the American architect widely considered to be a grandfather of movement.
It’s well over thirty-five years since Charles Jencks introduced us to ‘postmodern classicism’. That startling 1980 edition of Architectural Design with Michael Graves’ Portland Building on the cover defined the period, as did the list of names on the back (Jeremy Dixon and James Stirling being the British representatives). It’s common knowledge that Jencks claims to have coined the term, and he indubitably defined the movement. But thirty-five years is a long time and it is possible now to look at the whole story a little differently – and without Jencks in it. He himself will see, I hope, that it is a compliment to imagine that the movement of his own creation has developed a life of its own without him.
Nearly all the British postmodernists I speak to tell me that what that had really motivated them at the time was Edwardian architecture: powerful, rich, sculptural, stylistically ambitious, technically and constructionally accomplished. Take John Melvin, for example. In the 1970s he designed two terraces of brick houses in Islington that sat parallel to the line of the street and had front doors with arched fanlights above them. Someone who worked for the Mercers’ Company—one of the old City of London guilds which had become a major landowner—saw them and was struck by this audacious deviation from the modernist principle of designing a building, often of a largely abstract shape, in the middle of a lawn. As a result Melvin was commissioned to design a block of staff accommodation on Brook Green in Hammersmith – almost directly opposite, as it happens, the beautiful terrace where I had grown up.
These flats were built for teachers at St Paul’s Girls’ School further on down the same street. This building really is something. It was designed by Gerald Horsley, a founding member of the Art Workers’ Guild, in 1904, and is pressed right up against the railings, radiating an elegant power across the street: a little bit, I always thought, like a crouching tiger. It’s built of red brick with stone panels and dressings, and covered with free detailing. Behind the façade there is a large barrel-vaulted roof with ornamental plasterwork, a recurrent Edwardian motif. From this ensemble Melvin derived his own little block; a small lunette roof-light stands in for Horsley’s vault. In fact, on the way to the site from the tube station, Melvin would have passed not only the fine local central library (in Edwardian baroque by Henry T. Hare and the same age exactly as the school) but also a particularly lush fire station of 1913 with a warm wall of red brick, slightly in the manner of the early eighteenth-century but reborn on a city scale for a modern building type.
Then Melvin went back to Islington and built for the Mercers’ Company the stupendous block of red-brick flats in Essex Road for one of the most venerable of all uses: sheltered housing, that is, what were formerly known as ‘almshouses’. He knew what he wanted to avoid—the shapelessness and lack of domestic identity of the 1960s’ flats opposite designed by one of the most admired modernist architectural practices of the era. As a tribute to the memory of the many terraces of old houses demolished in the area in the preceding decade, Melvin designed his block with ornamental front doors, fanlights, chimneys, railings – the things that made a building a home. Exactly as Norman Shaw had done in 1879 in his huge, cliff-like blocks of flats beside the Albert Hall in Kensington: “they have worn so well,” Melvin said. Around the corner he designed a doctors’ surgery in a style that almost directly reflects that of St Paul’s Girls’ School.
As Melvin’s first Hammersmith building was going up, visitors to Cambridge were staring with some disbelief at the new library building affixed to the street side of Newnham College. It took the form of a simple barrel-vaulted rectangular block clad in vibrant stripes of red and blue. It had a dollhouse quality and contrasted (outrageously) with its dreary neighbour that had been recently designed by one of those exceptionally puritanical Cambridge practices many of whose buildings, however lauded by the local architecture school at the time (and I was there), were so thin and mean that they soon leaked, fell down or were demolished. This was Cambridge’s first postmodern building and it is still the best one. The architects were Van Heyningen and Haward and, according to Josh McCosh, one of the practice’s current leaders, the inspiration came from the gentle, pretty and popular, and extremely well constructed, late Victorian buildings by Basil Champneys that still looked fresh and of which two, at least, had their own ornamental, creamy, spreading barrel vaults.
It didn’t take long to find other architects working at the time who could provide similar examples from same period. Richard Reid, whose Epping Forest Civic Offices of 1984-1990 provides one of the most striking and enduring successes of British postmodernism, told me that he had taken his cue from G.F. Bodley’s nearby church tower (of 1905) and from a tough late Victorian water tower further along Epping High Street. He talked to me of the importance of drawing and of John Ruskin, as if he were an Arts and Crafts man himself – as indeed the critic Trevor Garnham was perceptive enough to recognise when he wrote about Reid’s building in the Architects’ Journal at the time.
The thing is, as Piers Gough said to me recently, these Edwardian buildings were extremely good. They represented, he said, “the high point of architectural ability in this country.” And Piers Gough is the ultimate British postmodernist: in fact, he was the only architect I spoke to who described himself as one, and few would disagree. Those architects were enormously inventive – as Gough said, they would vary the fenestration on every floor; they were built well at a time when quality building was valued. Yet you could recognise easily the features on them that spoke to everyone. Garnham’s hero W.R. Lethaby knew that if the ornamentation of a building reaches back in time to distant, symbolic things, everyone will somehow understand it, however complicated it is, and like it the more for it. Which, in fact, is not that far from what Charles Jencks was proposing in his enjoyable book The Iconic Building – except it’s a lot more organised and rather more profound.
But, as it turns out, British postmodernism is not about Charles Jencks, or about Robert Venturi. Nor is it about being the cheap British imitation of what the expensive Americans were doing. Looking back, it was a magnificent Edwardian revival – and a movement that deserves to be recognised as such.
From the architect. Treves & Hyde is a new restaurant and bar that we designed near Whitechapel in East London. The environment is also intended to accommodate both formal and casual occupation, staying open for interstitial use between meal service. It was also important to us and our client that the space could function without compromise from early morning through late night while maintaining its functional variability. So we provided ample and flexible seating, power points and areas geared equally towards both privacy and the happenstance run-ins increasingly found in modern workspaces or a cafe. We postulated that while guests might feel comfortable working or socializing in a space seemingly appropriate for dining, they could feel less at ease dining in an environment geared towards co-working. Accordingly the aesthetic typology is unabashedly that of a restaurant.
The space is heavily glazed and washed in sunlight throughout the day so we were conscious of creating texture and relief in many of the surfaces while mixing materials with a sheen or luster and those that were soft and matte to augment the kinetic quality of the light while providing comfort. We designed the restaurant to be as warm, welcoming and happy (and even appetizing) at night as it is during the day, and created the joinery and furnishings to look better with some wear and tear after heavy use. Natural stone, ceramic, brass, timber, concrete and blackened steel feature heavily in a bold but limited palette and we designed in a lot of room to accommodate generous amounts of vegetation in aged terra cotta.
Whether enjoying a casual solo breakfast over a laptop, having a cocktail at the bar, or dining formally in a party of eight, our design decisions for Treves & Hyde were predicated on inclusivity and flexibility without concession.
In this article Marcos Parga, director of the Madrid-based office MAPAA, presents an exploratory essay on the possibilities of living in developed urban centers, taking as a case study a site between two existing party walls in Madrid. The objective of MAPAA's exercise is to seek ways to enjoy the benefits of rural life, such as close contact with nature, in the city.
Cortesía de MAPAA
What type of home do we deserve?
Many urbanites asking this question would think that it is not too much to ask new residential architecture to give us the chance to live in the city while enjoying some of the advantages of the idealized rural environment—but without renouncing the density and effervescence of the big cities that we like so much. However, our everyday reality invariably shows us the opposite, which is why we decided to open up the design process for indeterminacy and participation.
Cortesía de MAPAA
The RRURBAN (Really RURAL and URBAN) project emerges as a possible response to this aspiration that is increasingly widespread—and, in recent decades, has been widely addressed by different fields—in order to inject the benefits of single-family housing into the speculative DNA of collective housing, furthermore activating issues related to participatory design.
Cortesía de MAPAA
The result of this romantic (and recurrent) approach to the urban housing problem is a reproducible system of development, based on the evidence that a neighborhood community is nothing other than an accumulation of disparate and unique realities that often disappear behind the unifying veil of residential architecture. We soon came to the conclusion that to achieve that hybrid, our strategy should combine two actions: 'fluff up' and 'customize.' Fluff up to generate spaces of opportunity, and customize to be able to increase the final price of each house and thus to compensate economically for the decrease in built area.
Cortesía de MAPAA
From this point, everything was easier: we need only substitute this unifying tendency with operations that exploit diversity, betting on a return to a certain militant individualism that redefines our way of living together. In addition, this path allows us to explore the limits of participation as already made by John Habraken with his theories about the "open-building" or Frei Otto with his "Okohaus" many years ago.
Cortesía de MAPAA
In this case, we have given each housing unit some flexibility so that they can be easily configured by the final users, according to their preferences. The design of each unit reduces architecture to its very essence and most original form: a limited set of basic geometric rules is used to create a framework within which life unfolds in all its complexity.
Cortesía de MAPAA
Thus, in a less ambitious and more operative way, a realistic “catalog of wishes” will determine the elementary characteristics of each "urban plot," becoming completely defined when occupying its final position within the general structure.
Cortesía de MAPAA
In a purely practical sense, the vertically-combined, disparate volumes will enable the desired 'fluffing,' multiplying the system's adaptability to any site. The result is a built environment of variable density composed of stacked basic volumes arranged to be inhabited. Among them, intermediate spaces are generated and treated as valuable extensions of the homes' inner life.
RRURBAN #01. MADRID
Cortesía de MAPAA
Cortesía de MAPAA
Cortesía de MAPAA
The first RRURBAN operation will take place in the center of Madrid, occupying a small plot of 385 square meters, enough to house 7 urban plots, all of them with private outdoor space (patio or terrace) and basement parking space. The common areas (25%) provide the community with a playground, a productive greenhouse, space for barbecues, storage room and bicycle parking.
View into the exhibition (1988). Photographer unknown. Image via MoMA
When Philip Johnson curated the Museum of Modern Arts’ (MoMA) 1932 “International Exhibition of Modern Architecture,” he did so with the explicit intention of defining the International Style. As a guest curator at the same institution in 1988 alongside Mark Wigley (now Dean Emeritus of the Columbia GSAPP), Johnson took the opposite approach: rather than present architecture derived from a rigidly uniform set of design principles, he gathered a collection of work by architects whose similar (but not identical) approaches had yielded similar results. The designers he selected—Peter Eisenman, Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Rem Koolhaas, Daniel Libeskind, Bernard Tschumi, and the firm Coop Himmelblau (led by Wolf Prix)—would prove to be some of the most influential architects of the late 20th Century to the present day.[1,2]
Original press release (1988). Image via MoMA
The term “Deconstructivism” refers primarily to two inspirations. The first—deconstruction—is a form of philosophical and literary analysis created in the 1960s, which questions and dismantles traditional modes of thought. In its suspicion of objectivity, this particular strain of critical thinking encourages one to think not just of what a text says, but what it does – and what the relationship between the two may be.[3] The latter inspiration is Constructivism, the artistic and architectural movement which began in the twilight years of Tsarist Russia and, once rejected by the Soviet society it initially embraced, dispersed throughout Europe and North America. Although its creators’ admiration for new technologies drove them to design structures of plastic, steel, and glass, they were not bound to pure functionalism; this apparent juxtaposition is perhaps best expressed in their preferred title of “artist-engineers.”[4]
Inside the exhibition (1988). Photographer unknown. Image via MoMA
As a mode of design, Deconstructivism is far more difficult to define than many of its predecessors and contemporaries. In the same vein as Postmodernism, Deconstructivism is a reaction to, and rejection of, Modernist architecture; its radically irregular geometry and dynamic forms serve to protest the scientific rationalism that defined and dictated much of architectural practice from the end of the First World War to the 1970s.[5] Despite a similar reactionary basis, Deconstructivism distinguishes itself from the greater body of Postmodernist architecture by its rejection of the latter’s more whimsically ornamental approach, an ironic similarity to the Modernist aesthetic it otherwise seeks to subvert. The end result is something between Modernism and Postmodernism – a destination reached by the seven exhibitors outside the context of a cohesive design movement.[6]
Inside the exhibition (1988). Photographer unknown. Image via MoMA
Despite originating from different architects with varying design methodologies, the ten projects displayed in the exhibition in question each celebrated the irregular and the unstable. Eisenman’s featured project, the Biozentrum (Biocenter) for the University of Frankfurt, starts from a rationally ordered series of block units with shapes derived from the protein sequences which compose DNA, all placed along a thin, transparent spine. The basic forms of the blocks are then distorted, with some expressed as solids and others as voids penetrating the ground. As positive and negative volumes intersect in wildly varying manners, the orderly Modernist template is fractured, resulting in the dynamic instability which characterized each exhibited project.[7]
1988 Catalogue Cover. Image via MoMA
Frank Gehry’s two contributions, his own home and the Familian Home, appear as architecture in the midst of transformation. Both projects are characterized by volumes which appear to be bursting from within more traditional structures, with both the emergent elements and the interstitial spaces realized in wood framing, sheets of glass, and—in his own home—obliquely angled planes of chain-link. While the Familian House was a new construction, his work on his own Santa Monica home was as much a work in progress as its dynamic spatial narrative seemed to suggest, as he gradually converted a typical suburban home into his personal statement on the relationships between, and within, forms.[8]
The Peak, Zaha Hadid’s chosen work, was a 1983 competition entry for a club in the hills above Hong Kong. Its four long volumes read as a collection of Hong Kong highrises tipped onto their sides and woven into the mountainous topography to which they are anchored. Its design, drafted in the days before computer modeling could truly begin to assist architects in realizing complex geometries, relied heavily on Hadid’s elaborately expressive concept paintings and diagrams, which presented distorted perspectival views not easily translated into built form.[9]
As he had once been a tutor of Hadid’s at the Architectural Association in London, it is unsurprising that Rem Koolhaas’ Rotterdam Building and Observation Tower was based on a similar painted axonometric concept study.[10] Where The Peak was emphatically horizontal, the Rotterdam Building was defined by what could either appear to be a row of stone slabs set against glass backing, or a stone slab with a row of glass towers attached. The latter is closer to the truth, as four glazed towers protrude from, or recede into, a stone-clad spine at varying angles. At one end of the building, an orthogonal glass tower stands almost detached from its counterparts, a symbol of Modernism connected only tenuously to its disorderly counterparts by a narrow skybridge. On the opposite end, an angled steel tower takes on the appearance of a Constructivist monument, the tension between the Constructivist and the Modernist apparently resulting in the span of Deconstructivism between them.[11]
The end of the Cold War and the reunification of East and West Germany meant that Daniel Libeskind’s exhibition project, his winning entry to the City Edge Competition, never progressed beyond drawings and models.[12] The project, standing within view of the Berlin Wall, was a commentary on the manner in which it cut apart and fragmented the old city. Formally, Libeskind’s design was the simplest project in the exhibition: a long rectangular slab which cut through West Berlin like the wall it was responding to. However, rather than truly divide the neighborhood, Libeskind tilted the slab along its length, with one end rising a full ten stories above the ground to create an open public space below while overlooking the Berlin Wall. Within the otherwise orthogonal slab is a jumble of tilted structural members, angled against one another and performing their mundane responsibility of supporting the building with Constructivist flair.[13]
In winning the competition to design Paris’ Parc de La Villette in 1982, Bernard Tschumi later noted that he had not been competing with fellow finalist Rem Koolhaas; rather, Deconstructivism itself had triumphed over Postmodernism, which was championed in this case by architect Leon Krier.[14] Tschumi’s design superimposed three systems: a grid of red metal cubes, a set of classical axes, and surfaces rendered in geometric figures. The interplay of the three systems causes warping and distortion in each, recognizable for what they are and yet irrevocably altered into something in tension with its neighbors. As a whole, the park is a study in the deviation from pure architectural form.[15]
The sole multi-architect firm to be chosen for the exhibition, Coop Himmelblau also presented the most projects. Two were set in the firm’s native Vienna and, like Gehry’s examples, one was a renovation and the other a new construction. The Rooftop Remodeling of a traditional Viennese apartment building saw its structure extrapolated into an apparent chaos of beams which, in its visual tension, appeared like the wing of a giant organism which had engulfed the building. Their Apartment Building, with its tilted rectangular volume peeled open with obliquely protruding beams and peeled metal skin, could almost be a marriage of Libeskind and Gehry’s projects in the exhibition. Coop Himmelblau’s third project, a skyscraper along the Elbe River in Hamburg, distorts and subverts the traditional expectations of a skyscraper: it is fractured rather than monolithic, held together by irregularly angled ligaments which give the impression that the tower is on the verge of falling to pieces.[16]
In his preface for the publication released with the exhibition, Johnson freely admitted that the willfully irregular, even anarchic forms found in Deconstructivist architecture “shock the eye of an old modernist like [him]self.”[17] Whatever one’s response to what Johnson termed ‘violated perfection,’ it cannot be denied that the seven architects in the exhibition, along with their contemporaries, collectively defined the path of architectural practice in the following decades; and although most have since moved on from Deconstructivism, its central goal of questioning, dismantling, and reconstituting architectural standards remains.
Inside the exhibition (1988). Photographer unknown. Image via MoMA
References
[1] Hill, John. "Deconstructivist Architecture, 25 Years Later." World-Architects. January 28, 2013. [access]. [2] The Museum of Modern Art. Department of Public Information. "Deconstructivist Architecture - Fact Sheet." News release, New York, New York, 1988. MoMA. [3] "Deconstruction." Encyclopædia Britannica. June 06, 2016. [access]. [4] “Constructivism.” Encyclopædia Britannica. July 28, 2015. [access]. [5] “Deconstruction.” [6] Culler, Jonathan, ed. Deconstruction: Critical Concepts in Literary and Cultural Studies. London: Routledge, 2003. p422. [7] Johnson, Philip R. Deconstructivist Architecture. New York, New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1988. p56. [8] Johnson, p22.
Location: 11 W 53rd St, New York, NY 10019, United States
Assigned Reading: Mark Wigley, The Translation of Architecture, the Production of Babel, Assemblage No. 8 (Feb. 1989) Architecture's Translation of Deconstruction by Tess Clancy Mark Wigley is a professor of architecture and former Dean of Columbia's Graduate School of Architecture, Art and Planning. In 1988 Wigley co-curated (with Phillip Johnson) the MoMA exhibition Deconstructivist Architecture.
The barn has been constructed of timber and metal salvaged from an abandoned farm. Image Courtesy of Matthew Mazzotta
Few sounds in this world are quite as satisfying as that of fresh rainwater falling on a tin roof. However, this soothing sensation is just one element of the Cloud House, a unique, interactive rainwater-harvesting system created by designer Matthew Mazzotta in Springfield, Missouri. From the comfort of a wooden rocking chair, the user is immersed in a rural farm experience, offering passers-by a moment to slow down, enjoy fresh edible plants and, as promised, bask in the sound of rain striking a tin roof.
Built in recycledtimber and metal from an abandoned farm, the Cloud House acts as a meditative, reflective retreat from the intensity of modern life, and a demonstration of our fragile dependence on natural systems. First, falling rainwater from the sky is collected and stored in an underground tank. Then, through the soothing motion of the rocking chair, the user triggers a system which pumps collected water up to the overhead ‘cloud.’ The water once again falls onto the barn, creating the warm, pleasant sound of rain on a tin roof, and nourishing the edible plants growing on the windowsill.
The Cloud House promotes quiet reflection and meditation. Image Courtesy of Matthew Mazzotta
An artificial cloud dispenses water to create soothing sounds, and feed windowsill plants. Image Courtesy of Matthew Mazzotta
A poetic counterpoint to the nearby bustling farmers' market, the Cloud House evokes the image of a quiet, simple, rural farmhouse of times past. Furthermore, it offers a subtle portrait of humankind’s dependence on natural systems. In the absence of natural rainfall, the underground reservoir would eventually empty and the artificial cloud would remain dry—and of course, the edible plants would not grow. Even in the playful novelty of the Cloud House, humanity and nature are deeply entwined, interdependent, each thriving from the sustained growth of the other.
By sitting in the rocking chairs, users activate the artificial cloud. Image Courtesy of Matthew Mazzotta
The rocking chairs, plants, and peaceful sounds evoke the imagery of a rural farmhouse. Image Courtesy of Matthew Mazzotta
Narrative aside, the Cloud House is first and foremost a place of quiet contemplation. In an age when "the cloud" has become synonymous with technology, innovation, and relentless connectivity, the Cloud House offers the chance to unplug, switch off, and immerse oneself in the fragile beauty of the natural world, whatever the weather.
Edible plants are nourished by water from the artificial cloud. Image Courtesy of Matthew Mazzotta
The Cloud House promotes quiet reflection and meditation. Image Courtesy of Matthew Mazzotta
See another of Matthew Mazzotta's works featured on ArchDaily here.
Correction update: This article originally stated that the Cloud House project was located in "Springfield, Montana." It is actually in Springfield, Missouri.
From the architect. One North is an innovative commercial development that was designed with a clear set of values involving community, environment, and resiliency. The project provides office and retail space on a brownfield site, with a focus on maximizing energy efficiency, reducing waste and consumption, and sharing resources with the community. Coupled with a strong commitment to neighborhood values and collaboration, One North represents an entirely different approach to commercial buildings.
Composed of three mixed-use office buildings with ground-floor retail, the development surrounds a new 14,000 square feet courtyard intended to create a vibrant community space for use by both tenants and the neighborhood. Purpose-built to achieve exceptional energy efficiency through a blend of leading-edge strategies, the Karuna East (4 stories) and West (5 stories) Buildings at One North were modeled to perform 50% more efficiently than a typical new building in Oregon. They are also expected to be 60% more efficient than the average US office building, including existing buildings.
Sustainability strategies include a super-insulated airtight building envelope, exterior shading, and locally-sourced and sustainably-harvested wood siding. The design team also implemented highly efficient mechanical systems and the near-elimination of thermal bridges. The Karuna East & West Buildings both have photovoltaic arrays for on-site electrical production (71 kw), thermally broken doors and windows for energy efficiency, and insulation on all sides of the buildings, including the foundation.
Diagram
Minimal on-site parking encourages public transportation, walking, and bicycling. Instrument, an independent digital creative agency, occupies the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th floors of the East Building, with retail on the ground floor, and the West Building is home to several commercial office and retail tenants.
© Nelson Kon
© Nelson Kon
© Nelson Kon
© Nelson Kon
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© Nelson Kon
Site Plan
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© Nelson Kon
Cross Section
© Nelson Kon
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