Aug 04
by tyler in Residential 0 comments

Shelf House

EFFICIENCY THROUGH ADAPTABILITYSAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA // 1,625 SFThe Shelf House is centered around the simple idea that adaptability creates efficiency.  By developing an architecture that users can interact with and modify, the environment morphs throughout the day and the season as necessary.   The house wraps around a great outdoor room.  Activities from the adjacent kitchen, dining, and family rooms extend into the deck.  Four large custom doors open without effort to change the shape of the spaces.   The family room utilizes a media center combined with a fireplace for optimization of space.  The fireplace uses the renewable energy of bio-alcohol that burns cleanly.  No soot is produced so that a flue is unnecessary.   Efficiency is found in the plan by the power the inhabitants have to adjust the spaces.  The office wall can open up completely toward the outdoor room when the family decides to use the room as a media space—a more public function.  The office can also be combined with the adjacent space for group work, or closed off for a receiving space.   The private and public spaces flow into each other in the adaptable outdoor room that provides a connection to the garden […]
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Aug 05
by tyler in Multi-Family, Residential 0 comments

Graft Tower

POST-FAB ARCHITECTURESANTURCE, SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO // CONCEPTSan Juan's uncontrolled urban sprawl and ecological devastation is a tremendous burden for a small island.  The Graft Tower is a net plus resources building that not only provides water, food, and energy for the neighborhood, but brings in revenue which subsidizes the building and many needed new jobs in Santurce.   The building is located on New Monteserrate street at the intersection of San Juan's two arterial public transportation routes.  The program on the ground levels is an epicenter of commercial activity and services to support the light rail hub.  A tower at the south end of the site rises 38 floors and contains an eco-tourism hotel and living units for permanent residents.   Construction of the building is unprecedented in its materials and methods. The structure is literally grown by grafting inosculate fibers around the basic skeletal frames of the commercial and housing units.  As the organic material spreads upward and around the frames more are brought from off-site and placed by a mobile crane as necessary - the post-fab process.   At crucial structural time intervals the structure is manually hardened in a process done by the permanent residents and […]
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