It’s been quite an amazing year for me and Zen Habits. I’m glad I’ve had all of you along with me for the ride.
Other than the 2016 election and other craziness in the world, which I decline to discuss on this site, a lot has happened for me personally:
Eva’s dad died this month, and we’ve flown back to Guam for the funeral. The good news is we’re finishing the year here on Guam, with family we love and miss, and it is gorgeous here.
My son Rain graduate from high school and started college, and my daughter Chloe moved back to Guam and started working at the newspaper. We had a family reunion in the summer for my wife’s family. Our son Justin moved back to California and focused on learning 3D animation. My other son Seth got into making electronic music, my daughter Maia started playing in a band and animating, and my other daughter Noelle saved up for a trip to Guam.
I traveled a lot: a retreat in Ecuador’s cloud rainforest, a hiking trip in Japan, a cruise from Sydney to Hawaii through New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Fiji, a nine-day drive around Iceland, and visits to Stockholm, New York, Maui, Guam, Buenos Aires, Lima, Cusco and Machu Picchu. Actually it was a bit too much travel, but I’m not complaining!
I got into ultralight hiking and explored the Desolation Wilderness, and have more hikes planned for next year, and camped in the Sierra Nevada with my wife and kids.
I dove deeper into learning about mindfulness. It became probably the biggest focus for me this year, and I hope to continue that in 2017.
I worked with developers to develop the Habit Zen web app for habits, and did a successful Kickstarter campaign for it.
From the architect. BRUMA winery is located in the wine region of Baja California, in the Guadalupe Valley, the winery is part of a complete project which includes a hotel and villas.
The Quito Publishing House is located in La Floresta neighborhood: a bohemian, artsy and closely knit community in the heart of Northern Quito. Its idiosyncratic nature posed the greatest design challenge. We were asked to introduce an office building where few exist and in the midst of a community with a strong sense of civil awareness, adamant about preserving the spatial values of its neighborhood. The program we were assigned was exciting: three publishing companies, formerly housed in separate floors of a high-rise, wanted to share one large space. Their employees are creative individuals with a strong aesthetic sensibility. This tripartite ownership of the building gave us more flexibility in terms of how we could program and distribute the space; all companies could relate within a similar hierarchal level. All three revolve around a central void, share the privilege of the same views, and have access to a roof garden. They also share communal spaces and we expect the fluid arrangement of the plan and section to catalyze a community atmosphere analogous to the one that characterizes the neighborhood.
Axonometric
From a formal standpoint, the great Modern domestic architecture of the surroundings inspired many of the elements that compose the building. In some of the houses of La Floresta, architecture and nature intertwine. Walking through its streets, one discovers a hidden garden beneath a staircase, or a staircase floating effortlessly above a pond, or a spatial procession that leads to the front door of a house. There are layers upon layers to be unveiled at La Floresta. We chose to emulate the mix of Modernity and nature; to create a spatial sequence that leads the users into the building and its roof garden; to open a central void or “hanging garden” that serves as a chimney and reinterprets the colonial courtyard, which besides capturing the zenithal light of Quito provides a visual cross section. The work spaces are wrapped by a double skin, the outer portion of which is a louvered screen, partially colored. Works of art punctuate the shared spaces, which act as galleries. The slope of the site is dealt with in the traditional Quito-way: through the integration of a zócalo, built in concrete and clad in black stone.
The Quito Publishing House received the first Leed Gold attributed to a building in continental Ecuador, for its intent of applying environmental design principles to a corporate building in the tropics.
The building is conceived of as a bioclimatic machinery, whose performance reduces to a minimum the dependence on mechanical systems of ventilation, heating and cooling. Since there are no elements projecting shadow upon the building, the northeastern and southeastern facades are subject to considerable solar exposure, particularly direct in the mornings. The “curtain” which would allow to regulate solar incidence was transferred from the interior of the building to the exterior, as a filter, understood as a biological wall, whose skin is interactive and capable of responding to temperature and humidity variations. The orange louvers respond to a climatic simulation that was more affordable than the introduction of sensors in each louver of the filters; flows of air ultimately depend on human manipulation, the most cost efficient option to reduce energy consumption. The fin shape of the louvers is aerodynamic so as to refract light and stimulate the generation of vortexes that accelerate the transfer of air. Its figure coincides, in section, with the operable windows. The central patio acts as a chimney that sucks the air towards the upper sections of the building and also serves as a funnel of zenithal light brought into the core of the building at the lower levels. This mechanism also injects air into the parking located underground. A vegetation layer shares with maintenance shelves the intersticial spaces located between skins (glass and louvers), providing an additional filter to purify and scent the air, buffer air flows and provide shade. The back façade provides enough thermal mass to absorb and liberate energy. The water surface in the ground floor, besides being a cooling device, responds to the need of rendering air circulation visible: it serves as a meter of the building´s performance through the rippling of the water surface. These mechanisms were introduced in order to take the greatest advantage of natural resources such as light and air, and in order to reduce to a minimum the consumption of energy and water.
Section
Water
The building has an integrated system of rain water collection that is channeled towards the bathrooms and the garden roofs or vertical gardens, where it is used for irrigation purposes. A double piping system facilitates trickle irrigation along the gardened facades and reduces water consumption.
The vertical gardens act as another layer of thermal insulation within the chamber of the perimeter, just as the roof gardens above. Native Andean species were chosen for the gardening –most consume low portions of water.
Section
Flexibility and adaptation
The sustainability of a building is proportional to its ability to adapt to different uses throughout time. The plans of QPH are open and lodge accessible electric, mechanical, lighting and communication installations to facilitate technological up-grades and maintenance.
QPH was built with a system of pre-fabricated, partially animated components that demanded a close collaboration between design and the local industry.
The maintenance shelves introduced along the perimeter of the building serve as dust buffers, support for the pots, gardening area, and introduce corridors that facilitate cleaning windows and louvers.
The building incorporates the elements that are necessary to sort, collect and compact waste.
Transport
In order to support the cycling culture of La Floresta neigborhood, QPH provides bicycle racks, showers and lockers. The location of the building was selected taking into account is articulation to the public transportation system.
Visitors to Bermuda are likely to notice one key feature about its architecture: across the islands, the pastel-painted houses all share a distinctive white, stepped roof style. A recent article on BBC News Magazine explores the original reason for, and subsequent history of, this unique roof design, showing how vernacular architectural elements often fit into a larger narrative of culture and geography.
The original reason for the roofs is relatively simple: with no permanent fresh streams or lakes on the islands, early settlers had to rely entirely on rainfall for their water source. To ensure that none of the region’s rainfall was wasted, builders developed the stepped roofs as a way to slow down heavy rain and prevent the building’s gutters being overwhelmed. Being constructed of limestone, the roofs were also heavy enough to resist hurricanes, and the white color reflected UV light from the sun, which helped to purify the water.
The technique was later written into Bermuda law. Every new house in Bermuda is now designed for a certain level of self-sufficiency, as each one must have 8 gallons (36 liters) of tank space per square foot (0.1 square meters) of roof area to store water.
However, as Bermuda’s residential and tourist populations grow, the islands are beginning to experience challenges relating to this water strategy. As the temptation to build upwards increases, the ability of these roofs to collect enough water for everybody is decreasing, and the islands now have 6 water desalination plants to cope with demand. Increasingly, the story of Bermuda’s distinctive roofs is intertwined with the story of its water challenges. Find out more about these challenges, and the roofs themselves, over at BBC News Magazine.
From the architect. The Junction Shadow House is a semi-detached residential dwelling that began as a mirror-image of its attached neighbour. Early in the design process, it became evident that the previous additions (front room over the porch, rear Mud Room) were structurally compromised and threatening to destabilize the original masonry structure. As a result, they were demolished, leaving the shell of the original house to work with, in the shadow of its longer neighbour. Natural light was not available from all sides, so the design focused on maximizing the light penetrating from the south, as well as moving it through the house as much as possible. The interiors are a bright white colour and the spaces are visually interconnected on all levels through a feature staircase, creating views and plays with shadows on all levels.
The front of the house was re-designed to include a large window, linking exterior and interior life. Similarly, a new rear Mudroom addition at the ground floor allows for easy access to and from the rear yard, and more importantly, access to the dog washing station in the basement. A third floor addition was built to create an open relaxing area for the homeowners, as the while maximizing the use of floor area and animating them with plays on light and dark. The finishes further reflect the idea of shade, with a palette of whites, blacks and greys…and occasionally a pop of colour.
Sig Nordal 