THE EARTHLAB

In the tough construction environment of New York City, nARCHITECTS found the wiggle room to realize a micro-unit housing project in Manhattan. Just completed. Looks great.

Excellent precedent for an intervention in Brooklyn neighborhoods. Mid-density environmental learning center, dedicated to community outreach, free and open to the public, that meets the requirements of the Living Building Challenge.

Cool medium-density housing in Korea. Check out how the final building still sort of looks like its massing diagram. Good integration of mixed use spaces.

Model exports. Central spine shaping up, and buildings are satisfactorily developed.

Each block will have its own unique curvaceous paths within the courtyard to accommodate various activities and functions.

New York wants test projects of microgrids and distributed energy ready to go when it launches its new Reforming the Energy Vision, or REV policy.

-Blue-green = undeveloped lots, for architectural interventions (facilities, gateways, community centers)

Oakland's take on privately sponsored public openspace     Location: Oakland, California Design Team: Justin Viglianti, Andrea Gaffney,

The concept of values is frequently brought up in relation to environmental issues, and discussions about urban nature are no exception. In particular, values are frequently at the heart of dialogue about urban ecosystem services, especially in relation to economics and monetary valuation.

Excellent idea for a facade system providing shading and power to housing behind it.

Looking at the graph, if a development could internally handle most of the organic waste (maybe even recyclables) coming from that block, it would drastically improve garbage collection efficiency on the part of the Department of Sanitation of NY (DSNY).

Noah @ the site, December 2011, early stages of Phase I.

Early diagrammatic sketches / parti diagrams for Phase I: Plug-In Shell and Earthlab.

Development sketches, beginning of Phase II, as the project expanded to include the entire block bounded by Tompkins, Willoughby, Hart, and Throop.

The lifeblood of the 169 Tompkins development. Such a system implemented at the scale of a single NYC block can be done quickly and cheaply. It will curtail transportation costs and boost efficiency, allowing municipal garbage waste trucks to collect an entire block's waste load from a single location. Truck routes will accelerate, and physically disposing of waste will become a swift and easy procedure for residents. Additionally, once that waste is pooled, it may be then recycled not just for the city, but more ideally for reuse in the block's own community-run renewable energy systems.