Abstract:
the Green Blocks were originally developed as a new housing prototype for a design competition, and later submitted to the 2011 Edmonton Urban Design Awards, for which it won a civic design award.
Design Intent
the Green Blocks were originally developed as a new housing prototype for a design competition, and later submitted to the 2011 Edmonton Urban Design Awards, for which it won a civic design award.
Design Intent
The Green Block is a modest
building with a big purpose - to fill in
the blanks of urban decay and help grow cities toward cleaner, greener
pastures. With an easy design that squares with the common grid and fits many sites,
it can be considered as a better sort of 'green-peg' to the many 'square holes'
of the generic city and delivers the individual and collective ingredients of a
healthier future.
Effectively a new type of
multi-level town-house, the Block provides a mix of dwelling options that include
generous doses of green space and combines these with communal areas for play,
gathering, urban agriculture, and spaces for local business' to take hold with
residents and neighbours. Thus merging a diversity of life-style options with a
diversity of shared functions and services, it supports the creation of a
wider, more sustainable community that connects to the city through a robust design
that can slot into small infill sites, populate larger city blocks, and always
maintain a connection to the street (the vital root of any urban society). Intended
to 'fit-in' in this way, the Block is not cast as the star of another green
revolution, but rather, favours a supporting role toward urban revitalization,
setting current ideas and technologies into a regular practice that achieves
sustainability collectively, one block at a time...
As a general prototype, the
Green Block is suitable for adaptation to many regions of the world, but the
design as presented here is intended for a North American culture and climate (specifically
the polar and temperate regions of the continent). Ideally, more Blocks could
equate to more individuals and families favoring downtowns to suburbs and
sprawl. With lots of living space, outdoor space, personal privacy, and space
for cars, they offer many 'suburban' advantages but with the urban advantage of
a compact city address that trades less distance and energy traveling about for
more time toward a life and community that`s closer to home.
Block Basics:
The basic Block as shown includes 8 town homes above, a place 8 cars below,
and commercial spaces in-between at street level where residents and neighbours
can meet by just going about their business. This arrangement (that reduces the
presence of cars) provides more room and opportunity to walk, bike, or take
public transit, while still maintaining a strong North American preference for
car ownership.
The primary shell of the Block consists of an inner concrete frame covered
with an exterior building envelope. For its part, the concrete (columns, slabs,
beams etc.) is chosen for its durability, recyclability, fire resistance and
thermal mass. And the envelope (which includes curtain walls and insulated
membrane systems) is used to cover and protect the concrete; limiting the
effects of thermal bridging and the damaging effects of expansion and
contraction caused by the large temperature fluctuations between summer and
winter. Within the various suites, wood frame partitioning and construction is
used to ensure the adaptable components and materials of the building are
renewable.
With this general design and construction the Block
maintains the sort of 'life-style independence' North Americans are used to
while also emphasizing a more public
street life, and greater levels of efficiency, durability and flexibility in
building performance.
Block in Context:
Edmonton Alberta, Canada.
Edmonton Alberta, Canada.
Edmonton, Alberta, a large northern city characterized by steep climatic
variations (that range from +30 0C to -30 0C) and the
sort of decay familiar to many American cities, provides a useful example to
demonstrate the restorative potential of the Blocks. Like many cities, Edmonton
has suffered the effects of a de-centralized automobile society, suburban
sprawl and mono-functional zoning; all of which have diluted its core to the
point where most people use it only as a place to park their cars between the
cyclical home-work commute. Dozens of empty lots beckon what should be a vital
downtown, but so far the City has lacked the proper amount of design and
planning needed to attract the diverse public that could really bring it to
life.
To address this, what the Green Block provides is
a way to incrementally build back community through a mixed-use building type
that promotes a diversity of lifestyles and business' wherever it's placed. By
setting homes over commercial spaces that align with the existing street
layouts, and then combining these with urban farms, markets, and views to the city
beyond - the Blocks effectively merge with their environment while bringing more
to it. While seamlessly adding new commercial space to existing, they also
provide more residents who contribute as either consumers, sellers, or creative
producers within the various urban farms, markets and new shops.
Block Technology:
Double Envelope & Green Room
 |
| view into a green room |
An important feature of the Block is the 'green room,' which is essentially
an intermediate climate zone created by a secondary glazed envelope placed over
the exterior balconies. Using a curtain wall with operable vents this envelope
slows the rate of summer heat gains and winter heat losses to and from the
building, while also providing a semi-outdoor space to grow plants and vegetables
beyond the regular seasons. Additionally, it operates as an effective sound
barrier to the outside, providing added quite and privacy from the city streets
beyond.
Water System
To conserve our most precious resource, the
water system makes use of rain and grey water. One central grey water system
captures water from both the roofs and from the various sinks, bath and laundry
sources, and then stores, recycles, and re-circulates this for use toward the
many green room and garden spaces. At a smaller scale within the unit
bathrooms, sink grey-water is directly harvested for use toward toilet
flush-water (separating this system from the larger one is intended to simplify
plumbing requirements and maintenance).
 |
| interior view |
The overall purpose of the plans is to blend simplicity with variety -
stacking cars, commerce and homes into a pattern that of self-sufficiency
that's easy to replicate. The size and order of the plans initiate from the
underground parking structure, from which all levels build up...
With this example, the lower floors are reserved for speculative commercial spaces
that share access with a central corridor and scissor stairway that provide the
required exiting for the levels above. While opportunities vary, it is intended
these spaces could be used by local business owners who'd cultivate their own
brands of creative service to the community.
The housing units above are essentially a type of multi-level town-house,
accessed by a central core. This organization allows the advantages of a
private home (personal entry to suites, natural cross-ventilation, east-west [or
north-south] day-lighting, garden space, etc.) and also allows for higher
densities and improved efficiencies over conventional town-homes; as the units
can stack over each other reducing surface areas and related heat loss. In all,
this example showcases seven different house types that range from small
one-bedroom units and up to large four-bedroom 2 storey units complete with
terraced gardens big enough for family barbecues.
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