The Re: Vision Dallas competition named three winners, two of which we previously featured on AD (DB + P and Atelier Data + Moov). The third winner is Little, a studio based in North Carolina, with their Entangled Bank proposal. “Entangled Bank combines heavy duty technological prowess with artistic integration of systems. The building is designed as a holistic, integrated design…The Entangled Bank entry materials was incredibly impressive… Each unit type was designed, completed with suggested sale price and amount of energy consumption. A wide array of green collar job programs were provided that work with the design of the building to engage residents and educate visitors. All of the jurors were struck by the thorough and joyous submission of Entangled Bank,” explained juror Eric Corey Freed.
More about the project (including a great video) after the break.
Entangled Bank is a series of complex networks connecting various elements in the community. Similar to how “a natural bank itself is meant to sustain and offer every opportunity for its constituents to succeed”, the same notion can be related to the social landscape of Dallas. “This project offers the opportunity to develop a network that supports those that flourish…but also rehabilitates those that have withered,” explained the architects.
The project utilizes innovative sustainable strategies to improve the natural environment. The south facing solar facade is seamlessly woven together with vertical wind turbines and an onsite biogas plant. The tower is on the south side to be self shading to the courtyard below, and sculpted by the angles of the sun. The east face of the tower is a folded plate living wall, incorporating the units for maximum day-lighting control, not revenue.
Yet, the architects went a step further and began to wonder if “perhaps this project will seek to sustain what might be our richest and most influential resource…the human. All too often we focus on hanging the effect without reviewing the cause.” Inspired by the entangle bank metaphor, the project developed into a space that will ”fertilize” an old parking lot in the hopes that dormant seeds of retail, commercial, residential and social equality if given water, in the form of education and teaching, and sunlight, represented in the sustainable movement of nature and man, can encourage this bank to flourish and grow beyond its original footprint.” In doing so, the proposal hopes to transform the city block into not just a newer city or country, but eventually create “a world that can sustain itself and also rehabilitate and support the people that are a part of that network.”
FIRM: Little Charlotte, Noth Carolina
Team Members: Bradley Bartholomew Ashley Spink Stacy Franz Kevin Franz Kumar Karadi Don Breemes Coby Watts Chad Lukenbaugh Jason Bizzaro Ryan Davis Philippe Bouyer Bo Sun
