UPCYCLE - Preserving the historic charm of the original brick solid, we embarked on a bold transformation, expanding the building on all 3 sides, to the back, to the side with a cantilevered volume over the carport, and on top adding an additional floor. Demolition provided us with beautiful wood beams to upcycle into cabinets and windowsills. By strategically re- imagining the layout we opened the home to an abundance of natural light, seamless flow, and new roof terraces. A large triangular skylight suspended over the kitchen / dining on the top floor provides great northern light. The double -height living room is cantilevered over the carport and has a large glass wall overlooking the Lane’s abundant green.

THREE VOLUMES
Understanding the current economical and environmental climate, and how it relates to our wellness, we decided to rethink the impact of the residence on its inhabitants and the footprint on the environment. Densification is important: by adding an extension onto an existing building of only 19 x 40 feet, we converted this townhouse into an 8-story vertically stacked tower of rooms, wrapped within a spacious lattice envelope functioning as a climatic skin, the third ‘volume’.

CLIMATE SKIN
The building volume setbacks are inscribed within in a unifying, rectangular trellis envelope of multiple patterns and densities. Made from lightweight steel frame and folding panels clad with Trespa™ slats, this “smart passive climate control envelope” serves as an adaptable perimeter of the building. It provides shading and ventilation, while also creating variable levels of privacy for a variety of outdoor balconies and roof terraces.

The Architect's Newspaper awarded Archi-Tectonics an Honorable Mention in AN’s Best of Practice Awards in the Architect (Small Firm) —Northeast category.

Selected from a group of 5 international architecture firms, Archi-Tectonics won this competition for the 2023 Asian Games with a bold and innovative design, fusing landscape and building program into a tridimensional land-form. Archi-Tectonics and !Melk landscape architects have inserted a sweeping masterplan with a 116-acre [47-hectare] park and 7 buildings into a densely built skyscraper district of Hangzhou, one of China’s fastest-growing cities. Though the park was commissioned for the upcoming Hangzhou Asian Games2023, the team looked beyond that event to set a new course for the city’s environmental future.

The project achieved “Green Building Evaluation Label 3 Star” (GBEL 3 Star), the highest level of sustainability in China and equivalent to LEED Platinum. Through BIM optimization between Archi-Tectonics and the GC’s team, the project saved substantial amounts of steel, overall costs, and shortened the construction time over 20% to just 3 years!

With the strict requirement that the park remain 85% green, it was quite the challenge to fit the 185,000m2 of buildings in the landscape. The design inserts these 7 new green buildings for the Games as ‘hybrids’ and ‘earth buildings’, that will convert to community- and cultural use after, providing concert and event spaces. Also the eco park is thought of as a neighborhood park; with a mix of natural reserves, hiking paths, water features, playgrounds and landforms that double as a sustainability infrastructure inserting restored wetlands, porous pavement and stormwater management. The Masterplan’s combined green roofs of approximately 64,160 m2 can release 83,408 kg of O and absorb 114,850 kg of CO annually, as each square meter of green roof can absorb 1.79 kg of CO2and release 1.3 kg of O2 per year.