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.

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.

Here are some new photographs of the Temari Japanese Art Ball.  As a reminder, if you’re free the day after Thanksgiving, stop by Pavilion at 2055 N. Damen for the opening reception of “Worth Your Salt,” a pop-up shop put on by Object Design League.  (See below for more info.) 

We are also very excited to announce that Temari will be taking part in another pop-up shop for the Holiday season. “Clairvoyant,” a three-day pop-up shop put on by subports.com will be active December 10,11,12 at 303 Grand St. in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY. There will be psychics, text messaging and Temaris, so you really can’t go wrong. We’d like to thank Subports for this wonderfully creative idea, and for including us in their show. 

Plex is very proud and excited to announce our participation in “Worth Your Salt,” Object Design League‘s Pop-Up shop, produced in partnership with Chicago design boutique Pavilion, and sponsored by Orion Offset and Subports.  Plex will be displaying and selling our Temari Japanese Art Ball, from Black Friday through December 11th.  We kindly invite anyone interested in joining us at the opening reception on November 27th (Black Friday) from 5-9 PM at Pavilion.

Pavilion
2055 N. Damen
Chicago, IL 60647

The Temari is a traditional Japanese ball, which prior to the advent of rubber and plastic, was an everyday object in every Japanese child’s life.  Since the industrial revolution the Temari has shifted from being a utilitarian toy, to being recognized for its intricate and beautiful stitching and colors.  Today the Temari is used either as a charm to adorn bracelets and mobile phones, beautiful holiday ornaments, or as a larger household decoration, adding warm splashes of color to any room, easy to replace and customize for any time of year or special occasion.

In an environment of growing technological dominance, Plex would like the Temari Art Ball to remind homeowners of the importance of hand craft and everyday beauty. The evolving meaning and use of the Temari is a reminder of the necessity of change, and with the new line of fun and modern color pallettes, we hope for you to find your own use and meaning for the Temari Art Ball in your life.

Please contact Plex at info@plexdesign.net for more information.

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.]

There is a moment on the highway between Narita Airport and Tokyo, when the road banks to the left, and you are elevated, floating above the bustling streets at dusk. You travel past apartment buildings, their fireproof metal panels beginning to fade with time, and clothes strung from lines creating a new, ever-changing mesh work facade. You travel past massive sporting complexes, their over-sized geometry creating wonder and mimicking the dance of bodies and equipment within. And you travel past sleek, glass office towers – even at this time of day, lit from within, the throng of well-dressed bodies moving around like ants in a child’s plastic farm.

At this moment, looking to my left across a perfectly green and manicured corporate garden, noticing how active the building looks, I simultaneously notice the second layer of activity: the Tokyo street below me, which I had almost ironically forgot existed. Then comes the third layer: the very elevated street I’m traveling on. As the journey continues through Tokyo, over the bay, through Chiyoda Ward, and out through the slowly shrinking buildings towards Kawasaki, it becomes obvious that although the size of the buildings decrease, the vitality of the city streets do not. Ward after ward, neighborhood after neighborhood, life thrives in this city. It matters not if its a weekday or weekend, winter or summer, 2pm or 9pm. People exist, people move, people live all around you, and it is this vitality that makes Tokyo, or any city, truly successful.

Having spent a good deal of time in four large cities in my life: Tokyo, Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago. I have to admit that unfortunately, Chicago is the only one which does not posess this type of vitality. But recalling my time in Tokyo, L.A. and New York, my heart begins to beat faster, and the human in me (not the architect in me) wants to take it all in and live.

Tokyo’s is so obvious that one is almost knocked unconscious by it. New York’s is similar, although it certainly has more hot and cold moments. However, when you catch New York in one of its hot moments, when the weather is right and EVERYONE knows it and are taking advantage of it, it is truly magical.  The street food, the constant ground-level retail, the labyrinth of underground secret passageways known as the MTA. This city is truly a living, breathing creature.

Los Angeles’ vitality exists in its underbelly. Los Angeles’ working class and imigrant population is its most powerful entity, and one that has truly overtaken it.  Its this working class that gets completely overshadowed by the bright, plastic lights of Hollywood and Rodeo Drive.  Visitors to Los Angeles often wonder how an entire city can survive only by the entertainment industry – as if there is no other industry in the city besides what gets magically beamed to their television sets every evening.  But this working class is what gives Los Angeles its “buzz.” There is a dull hum to the city – an obscuring veil – which continuously informs you that while you are currently breathing its [sometimes thick and orange-brown] air, none of it really belongs to you and you are truly only one small part in a vast show that’s being performed behind the cameras and off the stage sets.

We all coexist on this Earth, in locations of varying shape, type, and density.  Architecture, urban design, landscape: these are all simply means of ordering how we interact with one another. Without feeling like a small part to a larger whole, this life would be stagnant and lonely. I wish to celebrate the places on this Earth that make me feel like a human, by making the swarms of other humans around me a bit more sublime.

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.

A while ago, Plex were lucky enough to work with SoulStice on some artwork on a few of his hip-hop albums. For those who don’t know, SoulStice is an up and coming hip hop artist based in the Baltimore/DC area, and a close personal friend.  He’s also a signal processing engineer at Johns Hopkins, so if you’re trying to criticize him on ANY front….good luck. The man’s got pretty much everything pretty much figured out.

Well, as it turns out, Soulstice has a new album out called “Beyond Borders,” and iTunes has decided to highlight it on their hip hop front page. So please check it out – and don’t forget to go through some of his older stuff as well – you might see a bit of Plex out there! Plus, don’t forget to check out his collaboration entitled “Wade Waters” – it’s certainly a keeper.

Plex wishes SoulStice all the best of luck – but really – he doesn’t need luck. He’s got all the skills, intelligence, and integrity to make it on his own.

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. 

Thankfully, the debate has slowly been surfacing on a broad scale. Money has been begun to be inserted to public transportation programs and urban, walkable and livable cities have been planned in typically sprawling, suburban landscapes to heavy praise.  Projects like these need to continue and the people of America need to see for themselves the obvious benefits to urban lifestyles, rather than the dated, disproven “American Dream.”

This link discusses a few different projects and viewpoints, and is just a beginning to information regarding this pressing issue.

Room for Debate Blog – NY Times