The Hyper-Local House

 

Plex has entered a competition sponsored by FreeGreen, for a prototypical design for a house, which could be bought via internet and repeatedly used throughout the country. The purpose of this house is to be ecologically friendly and logical. We are calling our entry the “Hyper-Local House.”

The important aspect of this competition to consider is that this house design will not be designed for a specific site but, similar to many builders’ plans, bought and deposited in various sites, in various climates,  without the user necessarily thinking about it.  So rather than design a fashionable, low&long, horizontal wood slatted wood frame modern masterpiece (like many entrants have done), we chose to approach the problem of suburban sprawl at its roots. Three issues exist which continue to degrade the suburban condition which we decided to address.

The first is overdevelopment and overhardening of the earth’s crust. The more hardscape that is added to the earth increases surface runoff water, disrupting the naturally intended hydrological.  This is caused by both buildings and infrastructure, so we designed both to focus on this problem.  The most striking aspect of the house is its slimming at the base. With very little structural or financial efforts, current building technologies can accept large cantilevers. So the building sits on two separate bases, together totalling less than 50% of its widest projected area(the rectangular volume at the roof) this slimming reduces the footprint of the house and its affect on its site, and also gives it its striking formal identity.

The two bases which the house sits on are separated from each other, with a gap in the middle of the plan.  This gap, as well as the driveway, will be covered with crushed stone, rather than concrete. This material application will allow more rain to naturally drain into the ground as nature intended, and since there is less of an ecological impact, the crushed stone is brought through the middle of the site into the backyard. By connecting front and back yards, a more open and visible exterior condition is created, increasing awareness and safety no matter where you are located around the site.

When typical suburban plans are designed, no thought to cardinal direction is given. There is good reason for this, since in most suburbs, the roads are not designed around a grid, but an English-picturesque and Olmseadian concept of gently curving and rolling infrastructure. Therefore, the same house plan could be facing North, Southwest, Northeast, essentially any possible direction.  Since the biggest factor in interior heat gain and natural sunlight is obviously the sun, and the biggest factor in taking advantage of sunlight is the actual sun angles or path, the house’s orientation to the sun is of utmost importance. We designed a customizable panel system that will be flexible to take advantage of whatever cardinal direction the house faces. We realize that this house may face any orientation, so you cannot build a perfectly standard, typical house plan, such as every suburban builder does. A more flexible, intuitive system must be implemented.

Finally, there is a certain balance of technology and common sense that must be used to design an ecologically efficient home.  An architect could pack as many trendy, expensive, complicated systems into the house as possible, but these would most probably not be used, or at least not be used to their intended efficiency.  As building designers, we decided to use the actual architecture to solve this problem. By using the simple, ubiquitous technology of rooftop photovoltaic cells, you can power an entire house.  If a homeowner places 285 sf of cells pointing in an optimal direction(South), this can be achieved.  Therefore, we designed our house with four different roof configurations, allowing for optimal orientation to the sun. 0, 30, 60, and 90-degree options, which actually rotate the ridge of the house, modifying both the efficiency and the formal identity.

The most important aspect of ecological design is responding the the local environments of the project.  While this competition states that its paramount interest is being “green,” its really a non-starter since the requested design will be a prototypical one, bought by homeowners, rather than building design specialists or eco-experts.  So, since we are designing a mass-producable home with intention to be light in its ecological impact and customizeable to fit the exact site that it sits, we call our entry “The Hyper-Local House.”  The house, although prototypical, would actually be different if it faces South or Southwest. It would actually be different if it were built in Minneapolis or Albuquerque.

Filed under: Architecture, Competition

In Japan – A New Architecture of Recession

If the United States of America is the supposed perpetrator of the current international recession, Japan could stake claim as one of the biggest victims. (Admittedly, Iceland could certainly put up one hell of a fight in that argument.) But after its “Lost Decade,” in which Japan suffered and was slow to recover from its own collapse brought on by reduction in exports and too easily obtainable credit, there was a very faint light at the end of the tunnel. China’s surge in construction outsourced a great deal of equipment and technology to Japan and manufacturing jobs began to increase again, if in small, scattered numbers.  

Then, when America ruined it for the rest of the world, Japan felt especially helpless to the effects. The already exceedingly difficult terrain of the Japanese housing market became downright untenable for some, who had lost their job and could not find any mercy in hunting for an apartment in a city the size of your thumb. In America, when you want something cheaper, you have two options. A) Find something smaller or B) find something further from the city center. Only a very small portion of our land has any real value to it, since there is plenty more just outside of the suburban rim; farmland just waiting to be destroyed and churned into inexpensive spec houses. Japan doesn’t have this ‘luxury.’ The US is 26 times the size of Japan (roughly the size of the state of Montana), but has only 2.4 times more people in it. That means Japan’s person/area density is over 10 times that of America’s. As I said – space is at a premium. So for the Japanese salaryman who just recently lost his job, there isn’t use looking further from the city center. The only option is to go smaller. 

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During the boom economy of Tokyo’s 1980′s, the salaryman’s workday was tiring, stressful, and long. Often working until midnight, he would very often head to a local bar with coworkers to unwind before venturing home to his family. Well, as you can imagine, this would get a little too out of hand sometimes, forcing him to either miss the last train of the evening, or feel too shameful to present himself to his wife in current state. Thus, the capsule hotel was born. An inexpensive, convenient alternative to the luxurious and costly Tokyo tourist hotels, this architectural typology exploded in popularity between architecture students and over-inebriated salarymen alike. 

Flash-forward to 2010. The global economy is in meltdown. Japan’s export figures are floundering. The job market is faltering. But guess what: The footprint of the island remains the same, and population hasn’t fallen enough to affect real estate prices. (It has, though, actually fallen .2% in 2009.) 

Since the only option is to go smaller and the salaryman has less of a reason to spend his increasingly fragile salary on late-night beer binges, but the capsule hotels still remain, there is one obvious solution:  Live in Capsule hotels.

Filed under: Architecture

Niwa

Winter.

Summer.

Autumn.

Niwa is a residential competition entry that we submitted in October of 2007. The competition asked us to contemplate the changing relationship between exterior and interior space in modern architecture, especially in relation to the  importance placed upon it throughout Japanese architectural history.  While the city is becoming more and more dense, there must still be exterior space which affects and improves our lives.

Our proposal uses the exterior space, or garden in this case, as an architectural element, which is essential not only to the aesthetic and makeup of the exterior wall, but the program which functions immediately behind it.  Without the natural performance of the Niwa wall, the building could not properly function. Please see below the exact text which we submitted for this project.

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The Synthesis of Function and Performance

The existence of Japanese gardens and the dynamism of pure nature have an inverse relationship. The more influential nature is on people, the less necessity there is for a garden. In pre-industrialized Japan, people were more aware of nature and its actions because they could not control it. But as humans’ ability to control nature has developed, the garden has become more important, but also more stale and inert. A parallel problem which has emerged is the general lack of space in urban and suburban residential neighborhoods.

We’re using the solution to the lack of space problem as a catalyst for a re-emergence of dynamism in humans’ relationship with nature: using the house’s exterior walls to grow a garden, and in tern, using this garden to define the interior of the house. Our architectural and natural solution to the lack of space problem creates an inherent bris soleil, which produces shade in the summertime because the plants are catching the majority of direct sunlight, leaving only indirect light to filter through to the residence. In the winter, however, deciduous plants die and the sun moves lower in the sky, letting light into desired spaces. By bringing natural plants directly up to the boundary of the house, we’re promoting and nearly forcing a direct observation of nature by the user.

In Spring, plants let in the fragrant smell of flowering blooms. In Summer, the user is surrounded by green, so that they truly are living IN a garden. In Autumn, the beautiful colors which are so often unseen in the most dense of urban areas are surrounding the user at all times. And in Winter, due to the lifespan of the plants, much needed sunlight easily streams in and warms the house.

Based on the interior spaces and their functions, the plantings are varied by either deciduous or coniferous in nature. The deciduous plants die in the winter, allowing the more public spaces, such as the entry and the living room to be visible from the outside, and for sunlight to come in and warm them up. The more private spaces such as the bathrooms and part of the bedrooms are surrounded by carniferous plants, which are fuller, allowing less vision in, and remain this way throughout the year.

Our proposal creates a synthesis between solving a functional problem [the lack of space sufficient enough to plant gardens] and performance [ the emergence of the house as a performative, dynamic garden rather than a static piece of art.]

Filed under: Architecture, Competition

Aqua Tower: Chicago

 

Image by: R.L. Segal

We’re about to do something we really shouldn’t do on a proprietary blog – talk about another firm’s project. But the world is not made up of Plex projects…although wouldn’t that be something?

From our living room window, one can see the top of the Aqua Tower, which is quickly nearing completion in the River East area of Chicago. Many bloggers, critics, and laypeople have had their say about this building, so I’ll attempt to add my take on the topic quickly, as to get you back to your more thorough investigation of it.  As with many new buildings in Chicago and throughout the world (including the Trump Tower and the Calatrava Spire), one may say what they want about the aesthetic of the building. One may like it or dislike it. One may think it’s too wavy, or from certain angles, the slabs look to thin, or it’s too tall, or its not tall enough, or the facets of certain balconies looks strange, or it doesn’t fit within any context, or the patterns do not align or coexist beautifully enough. There are certain criticisms of Studio Gang’s design which might actually be worth something. But to anyone outside of the architectural sphere – to the people who this building was actually built for – what does it really matter? This is a new building which makes people talk about architecture. From the street merchants, to the investment bankers, every day thousands of Chicagoans are looking up towards the sky and seeing something they’ve never seen before – and boy, is that refreshing.

We must applaud Studio Gang not only for designing a(nother) groundbreaking piece of urban architecture, not only for thinking it up in the first place, but for remaining steadfast in their vision for YEARS, for taking all the punches from the typical Chicago folk who only want to see (ridiculously) simplified Louis Sullivan buildings and Wal-Marts constructed. For convincing their client that, yes, design IS worth extra time, headaches, and maybe even money. (Can you imagine?) That through art, inspiration, and passion, maybe a stupid building CAN create a better, more thoughtful and wonderful life for us who are lucky enough to either live in or within eyeshot from this new beacon of imagination.

While this building is growing on me, as a rival architect, I am contractually bound not to like it 100%. But for anyone to discuss this building and NOT to give it immense credit is certainly either jealous, ill-informed, or naive.  The Aqua Tower represents everything that architecture should be: technologically advanced,  simple, audacious and stimulating.

Filed under: Architecture, General

M-House Photos

Plex is proud to announce the completion of the M-House in Tokyo, Japan. Upon our recent visit to Japan we were able to take some photos and present them to you here. The M-House sits on a typical Tokyo lot, on a site which slopes away from the street. Because of this, the best views through Tokyo and Yokohama beyond are out the rear of the site. Therefore, the street facade is mainly solid – maintaining visual privacy to the family as well as keeping out the sometimes harsh sound of traffic.  Upon entering the residence, the user is turned around by entering on the side, and ascending up the main stair parallel to the street, rather than the more typical perpendicular orientation. Once arriving at the second, or main living floor, the user makes a 180-degree turn, completing the disorienting path to the living space. Now, the user is unaware of front/back and only concentrates on the views given to them by the continuous windows along the South and East walls, and the ample space afforded by the Great Room, containing dining, relaxing, and conversing spaces.

Continuing up to the third house are two large bedrooms for the children, who inhabit their own floor complete with private bathroom and exterior terrace. The roof can also be accessed easily by another permanent staircase, and once on the roof, 360-degree views of the Tokyo metropolitan area open up, as the roof level is the highest point in the neighborhood. 

Filed under: Architecture, Photos

M-House Substantial Completion

We are very happy to report that our clients have moved into the M-House in Tokyo. There are a few minor details that need ironing out, but they’re in and happy, and that’s all that matters.

The house is a three story house for a single family with a full roof deck. The ground floor contains a guest room and bathroom. The second floor houses all the public space – kitchen, dining, living and small office. The upper floor has three bedrooms and an exterior terrace lining one full side. A stair links the third floor to the roof, with a 360-degree view of the local Tokyo district.  Because of the terrain of the site, the front of the house was kept very solid, with the rear opening up to vast views of the city beyond. The views are the true essence of this project, with window size, location and geometry driving and controling what the user sees, and when.

These images were taken after the clients have moved back in. We will be travelling to Tokyo soon ourselves, and will try to bring back even more images. It was an absolute pleasure working on this, our first single-family residence.

Filed under: Architecture, Photos

Congratulations Peter Zumthor

We at Plex Design would like to congratulate Peter Zumthor on his Pritzker Prize. 

In these times of instant media, publicity-seeking wunderkinds stealing most, if not all, architecture headlines and glossy computer renderings (look who’s talking), it is fantastic to see Mr. Zumthor receive the credit he most certainly deserves. His is an architecture of meaning, physicality and reflection.  He began his career as a cabinet maker, and uses his profound knowledge of natural materials to bring a unique human, sensory experience to modern, minimalist architecture.

Both of our personal and professional lives were enriched by a 2006 visit to his Therme Vals bath in Vals, Switzerland.  Immediately after arriving at the site, we realized in person what the Pritzker Foundation has just acknowledged in this award.  As fellow architects, we recognized that the mind who created this wonderful space was more than merely talented, but a truly gifted creator.  As humans, we recognized that space and experience could be molded and heightened by contemplation and thought for life, light, and natural elements. We would like to thank Mr. Zumthor for his life-long dedication to improving this planet, and the Pritzker Foundation for recognizing a genuinely remarkable talent.

Filed under: Architecture, News

M-House Construction

The M-House has been diligently nearing completion, with a scheduled move-in date of April 15th. Ocean Homes has been the associate architect and general contractor on the job, and have been doing a stellar job.  Plex is currently working with the clients for some finishing touches, such as the design of the entry gate. Here are some construction photos from the site in Tokyo. Construction started in late November of 2008.

Filed under: Architecture, Photos