Status: masterplanning, NDA
Site area: main campus - 74,600 SM; north campus - 24,300 SM; west campus - 14,900 SM; Total - 113,800 SM
Building area: Building A (central courts) - 20,980 SM; Building B (south court) - 15,500 SM; Building C (southeast court) - 17,000 SM; Building D (north court) - 12,750 SM; Building E (boomerang) @3 - 9,700 SM; Building F (tower) @ 8 - 12,160 SM; Total - 88,090 SM
We are connected by work even to the places where we don’t work, for all places are connected; it is clear by now that we cannot exempt one place from our ruin of another. The name of our proper connection to the earth is “good work,” for good work involves much giving of honor. It honors the source of its materials; it honors the place where it is done; it honors the art by which it is done; it honors the thing that it makes and the user of the made thing. Good work is always modestly scaled, for it cannot ignore either the nature of individual places or the differences between places, and it always involves a sort of religious humility, for not everything is known. Good work can be defined only in particularity, for it must be defined a little differently for every one of the places and every one of the workers on the earth.
WENDELL BeRRY
TANY MENA
Good work honors the place industrious activity, the materials used, the people who work there, and the users who will benefit from the final product.
the forest and the soil
The endemic condition is the soil - tany mena is the austronesian word for red earth - its streams and aquifers, and its indigenous forest. CO2 emissions are warming the surface of the earth at an alarming rate, and causing melting ice, sea rise, and biodiversity loss. Forests absorb nearly 40% of all CO2 emissions into their roots and the soil and help to reduce pollutants that cause disease and death. We commit to the precepts of an urban forest which locally mitigates and reverses the deleterious effects of global warming: building within the endemic condition to enhance its natural sustainability.
work
The new use for the site is is a part of the natural and endemic condition; they are inextricably interrelated. The virtual and physical manifestations required to facilitate the work of the new community follow the precepts of the existing condition, the land and the forest. Given a new commission for work, a community of artists and engineers, a piece of land, the anthropocene, and the need for a new city to bring them together and fulfill their mission, we start our design with a strong commitment to root ideas that will drive the work.
urban spaces - all of the process processes of the work - procurement of materials, transformation into a useful product, delivery - form the foundation for how the city is designed.
pervious hardscapes
pedestrian precinct
The tech city is uniquely located, scaled, and detailed to become one of the region's most transformational projects in decades. Our objective is to make a new destination for a media and creative community to gather and work, and for the local and international community to attend public meetings and events.
The regional context for the new Tech City - its cultural and physical realities and its local neighborhood host - form the basis of the design and development for the new project. We propose a new paradigm for building a connected, urban, green community within a rich and evolving regional context.
The Tech City project will be developed by bringing together the large community of educators, producers, creatives and technicians, with a world class technology infrastructure, all set in the context of an exceptionally designed urban environment. The architecture - its iconography, forms, materials, and qualities - will establish the framework within which the city’s creative endeavors will operate. It will be open, flexible, light, full of nature, and a place to flourish.
We envision a series of outdoor public plazas and gardens connected by internal pedestrian walkways, with groupings of buildings placed to frame the open spaces.
The forest is the primeval environment. We come out of it nourished and reenter it to recreate and reestablish our natures. Trees draw down carbon and cool the local environment. So, the forest forms the green heart of our project. A significant portion of the central area of the large site are given to horticulture and building a substantial collection of native plant species. It is a respite for workers and visitors who may leave their urban offices and find themselves walking in a natural environment in the middle of the day.
The landscaper is like a snake winding is way along the sun dappled forest floor. The landscaper is always connected to the earth, the forest canopy, and - in clearings and meadows - the sky. It makes shaded alleyways and its roof is and elevated secret sky garden.
Gardens dominate the city landscape reminding us of the essential and symbiotic relations we share with nature. Towers are set within the greenery, their foundations and entryways are visually and physically adjacent to the forest garden. Their roofs extend above the tree canopies for views across the regional landscape.
Where zoned use is an old idea which hasn't worked well - mixed uses always contribute effectively to a vibrant culture and environment. Both the site and the buildings will have mixed uses. Retail, galleries, and restaurants will occupy the ground floor of office buildings, production premises and studios will sit adjacent to offices, etc. Flexibility - buildings will be designed for flexibility of future use. Retail - retail and conveniences will principally occupy the ground floor spaces along the public street access, and spill into the plaza spaces.
The program elements include a school, tech studios, tech support spaces, offices, restaurants, daycares, auditoria, and housing.
Regional circulation - The Tech city will be connected to the nearby downtown by bus, and is within a 20 minute drive from the city. We propose a dedicated bus service from downtown hotels, government buildings etc, to the Tech City. Pedestrian circulation - the new Tech City will be pedestrian centered; the core areas will be free of cars. Vehicular circulation - cars will be kept outside of the Media City core spaces, and there will be minimal surface parking.
Our intent is to avoid surface parking and to open the site for public use. In our design, the perimeter streets have parallel parking. On the site there is parking under the building footprints. Where needed, based on the requirements of the local zoning codes, we provide additional structured parking. The garages are hidden behind street and plaza facing office and other program spaces so that no blind conditions are created.