Symbiotic Environs

The design approach of integrating bioorganic and natural processes with the infrastructural functions of the built environment sustains a healthier environment that educates inhabitants about the quantity of their resource consumption and develops an understanding and appreciation for the ecological processes necessary for sustaining life through a multi-sensory engaging constructed landscape. The resultant built environment operates with significantly less resource demand and enhances the natural environment through the addition of nutrients, rather than the current practices of resource depletion and pollution. This task will be pursued through the programmatic framework of an innovative office building situated within a residential network in Tacoma Park, Washington D.C, and follow the innovative Cisco Telepresence office building concept. The focus will be on the design, integration, and implementation of the program spaces and water distribution, collection, filtration, and storage infrastructure with regards to providing maximum thermally optimal occupied spaces throughout the year. This is achieved through the potential for interrelation of a cave ecosystem with a greenhouse, supplemented with gradient space. The primary focus is the relationship of these systems to the occupancy of the building, evaluating the effects of these factors on each other, and determining opportunities to propose new types and levels of interaction and relationship between these systems. Additional facets which were undertaken were agricultural production, passive energy generation, minimization of the embodied energy footprint of materials and structure, and collecting, filtering, and storing surrounding community greywater and storm water. Throughout the course of the research it was determined that the integration of water collection, storage, filtration, and distribution did not have a direct impact on the form or organization of the building. This system can be integrated in a plethora of ways to various spatial/programmatic strategies. As well, both the greenhouse and cave spaces were optimal for different programs, notably cave spaces can be utilized for maximum contrast environments for digital projection, work, and conference environments; while naturally daylit greenhouse and gradient spaces provide optimal collaboration and lounge spaces. The overall conclusion was that varied spatial environments in regards to thermal, visual, and acoustic qualities provide a more cohesive, adaptable, and efficient work environment that allows for a broader and more optimal range of work, while performing at maximum efficiency and serving as a community and environmental asset. This develops a gradient between built and natural environments, through co-habitation and blurring of these environs.