[ Standard Architecture ] Co-Op Canyon

Standard Architecture’s conceptual design, Co-Op Canyon, has recently received an honorable mention for the Re:Vision Dallas competition.  The competition provided participants with the opportunity to create an innovative and sustainable prototype for an urban community. Standard’s radical approach focused on how the residents could potentially gain equity through participation in construction, agricultural, maintenance, education and conservation programs central to the sustenance of the community.

Co-Op Canyon creates a sustainable, zero carbon space fit for 1,000 users.  Inspired by the cliff dwellings of the Anasazi Indians, the Co-Op features terraced urban conditions which overlook a lush urban canyon.  The dwelling terraces are lined with front yard gardens that host native plants varying in color and texture, while backyard gardens emphasize the ends of the terraces.   The garden allotments, in addition to communal farms, are dispersed throughout the terraces allowing residents to grow, exchange, and share canyon-grown produce.

Food acts the connecting thread that ties the community together.  The community farm is the focal point of the southern canyon, situated on the stepped terraces that link the levels of the canyon floor. Produce from the community farm is either consumed in the community kitchen or sold in the market spaces below.  The kitchen offers classes and food tastings focused on nutrition as well as a place to share family cooking techniques. The kitchen is part of a holistic approach to health that includes exercise and intergenerational social interaction encouraged by work in the canyon’s gardens.

The canyon walls are relatively thin which allows ample natural light and air circulation within the dwellings.  At the street level, the porous walls form the threshold between the community and the urban context, linking the terraced canyon floor to the streets of Dallas. 

Standard Architecture may sound familiar because we interviewed them a few months ago to get to know the upcoming firm.  For more information about the Re:Vision Dallas Competition and Standard Architecture’s proposal.

Standard LLP: architect Jeffrey Allsbrook, partner Silvia Kuhle, partner Project team: Alexis Caver, Kazu Shichishima, Brandon Bown, Alex Babich, Gregg Oelker

Coen Partners: landscape architect Stephanie Grotta, principal Erica Christianson, Bryan Kramer

Thornton Tomasetti: structure Bruce Gibbons, principal, Christopher Kahanek

IBE Consulting: MEP, sustainable design Peter Simmonds, senior associate, Patrick Wilkinson

Davis Langdon: cost estimate Ethan Burrows, associate principal, Jane Northey

Atelier 10: sustainable consultant Claire Johnson

from  archdaily