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497 GREENWICH PASSIVE SOLAR CONDOMINIUM BUILDING
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FLATLANDS AND MASSIVE THINGS, AEDES, 2019
80,000 SF MIXED-USE BUILDING: PASSIVE SOLAR HEATING AND RENEWABLE CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS
LOFT 8B
LOFT 2C
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Award-winning parametrically-designed smart skin turns an industrial warehouse into a mixed-use building with contemporary lofts, galleries, a guest apartment, and a spa/fitness center.
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"Dubbeldam's folds are philosophically as well as visually grounded....[She] crystallizes urban complexity within the discrete architectural object."- Herbert Muschamp, The New York Times 2004
CHALLENGE
Transforming a former industrial warehouse into an 80,000sf mixed-use beacon for the community, this building combines lofts, art spaces, and a fitness & wellness center—all while re-interpreting New York City’s strict set-back laws. The new building's innovative angled glass facade was custom designed and one of the first 3D parametric models. A performance analysis resulted in the differentiation between the façade’s vertical [steel] components and the horizontal [aluminum] mullions, thus optimizing the folded façade’s performance and minimizing costs and effort. The further analysis of the façade’s structure led to the decision to actually bend the glass panels to minimize forces and create completely transparent seams. The 3d folded glass façade is a first in parametric design, electronic communication of 3D computer drawings between manufacturers in Barcelona, Hong-Kong and Brooklyn enabled the manufacturers to fabricate the custom parts straight from 3D files [file to factory]. This eliminated mistakes, resulted in a perfect fit, and optimized a fast manufacturing & installation process.
INNOVATION
PARAMETRIC -. We renovated the warehouse and added an 11-story smart loft building enclosed in an innovative glass & steel smart skin: a parametrically designed facade that optimizes energy efficiency while re-interpreting the neighborhood’s setback laws into a set of glass folds and infections wrapping the former brick warehouse. The 3D digitally custom-designed and pre-manufactured folded glass facade uses annealed double-glazed panels—a material typically reserved for industrial and automotive design—that are folded to a 1/16th” tolerance to achieve a distinctive form, and the custom designed and extruded mullions are sloped to follow the glass folds seamlessly. This was a true innovation: the building was completed in 2004, long before parametric design and coordination were adopted as valuable design tools.
IMPACT
GREEN. The integration and renovation of the existing warehouse [embodied carbon] with its new extension with a folded steel and glass facade creates a low energy-use, passive solar energy and spectacular urban living. The folded glass facade provides passive solar energy in the winter and its smart solar glass reduces overheating in the summer. Exterior spaces provided by the prefabricated concrete balconies on the west and wood clad balconies on the east provide ample green space. The common courtyard on the ground floor is designed as a bamboo garden. The building introduces a lively mix of uses to the neighborhood, through the gallery spaces on the ground floor and its 25 open lofts with generous amenities above.
