[ Forrest Fulton Architecture ] Lace Hill

For Forrest Fulton Architecture’s competition proposal, the Alabama-based firm designed a 900,000 sqf biomorphic spatial surface that connects the adjacent city and the landscape.  The architecture focuses on creating an urbanistic landscape that morphs the common urban element of Yerevan, the superblock, to the site, a truncated hill along the natural amphitheater of the Yerevan.  This new model of development supports a “holistic, ultra-green lifestyle” with overlapping natural and urban phenomenon.

Area: 85,000 sm  (915,000 sf)
Client: Avangard Motors, LLC
Location: Yerevan, Armenia
Status: 2010 Competition Entry
Design Architect: Forrest Fulton
Project Team: Jared Fulton, Andrew C. Bryant, Derrick Owens

The artificial “hill”, which is clothed in native plants irrigated with a recycled gray water system, creates viewing seats for the Yerevan and Mt. Ararat.  The exterior perforations recall the intricate details of traditional Armenian lace needlework.  These apertures are not mere surface treatments but rather terraced exterior space that provide amazing views.

A series of tower-voids serve as cooling towers which allow light to flood the interior while also passively cooling the space.   As northern wind passes over the tower-voids’ ponds, the project acts as a giant evaporative cooling mechanism for the semi-arid city below.

On a sustainability note, the project is infused with different passive and active eco-friendly techniques.  The planted surfaces on the hill absorb solar heat, filter air and water-borne toxins, and support insect and animal life. Geothermal wells and radiant floors efficiently heat and cool spaces. Recycled gray water irrigates agriculture and hill plantings.

Programmatically, the activities in the project are linked to sun exposure.  Living spaces run the long south face of the hill, maximizing direct sun, terraces, and views. Offices, which need indirect light, are along the north face of the hill. A narrow office floor plate stepping down toward the south provides adequate, diffuse daylight. Retail, restaurants, exhibition halls, a cinema, and a health center line the promenade at the first level.

The proposal’s “productive surface” offers the potential to fuse performance, function and sustainability into a new kind of mixed-use complex.

from  archdaily