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New York, New York, USA

Architects: 3deluxe
Client: #WeThePlanet
Photographers: Sascha Jahnke

In 2021, New York-based #WeThePlanet commissioned the designers to develop a green and people-friendly concept for a Manhattan corporate building that would contribute to transforming our cities green and well, into people-friendly, climate-resilient places.

A landscape approach was developed that intelligently densified urban environment without sealing more soil. Thus, was the building placed on an existing flat roof and lushly landscaped to regulate the urban carbon balance and overheated climate, reduce energy use, promote biodiversity, and significantly improve air quality.

The design team created a biotope as a semi-public space that occupies the same area as the indoor space used by people. This follows 3deluxe's 50/50 principle, which states that 50 percent of any building project should be reserved for nature.

The simple shape of the building corresponds to that of a steep slope. This allows usable interior spaces to be placed under a hill.

Its sides are generously glazed, to maintain a comfortable indoor climate and also to integrate the largest possible sensor-controlled area for smart technologies for energy recovery and consumption reduction; Transparent photovoltaics, eyrise® smart glass, algae bioreactors, and solar film made from recycled kitchen waste, and more.

This building project is a socially interactive house that involves the environment. At the same time, it aims to show what kind of innovative technologies can play an important role in the carbon-neutral city in the future.

That creates the vision of an inner-city natural biotope that not only promotes climate preservation but also offers city dwellers social interaction, higher quality of life, and new experiential spaces for the senses: People from the neighborhood can use the rooftop garden for urban gardening and beekeeping, for example; schools and kindergartens can impart knowledge and experience nature; cultural events, readings, and lectures can take place in a climate-friendly and pandemic-safe outdoor environment.

In return, local people will care for and maintain the biotope. It will expand the habitat not only for people but also for birds, insects, and various plant species, thus promoting biodiversity.

At the same time, the biotope will store rainwater and humidify the environment on hot days, absorb fine dust, convert carbon dioxide into oxygen, and improve air quality. The roof garden will insulate the interior of the building from cold and heat and reduce energy consumption.

The building will be like a living organism, positively affecting its surroundings in many ways.