The ambitious and successful award-winning architect, MAA Christian Bay-Jorgensen, from the architectural firm, Bay Arch, shared with us this unique and sustainable building at the harbour in Boston, Massachusetts. With affiliates in Ringkobing and Copenhagen and with creativity and energy in the blood, Boston Fusion will contain apartments and offices to create a new, green design in every sense with the help of eco-friendly materials from Icopal. This project also forms part of the plans for a new, green quarter called South Boston. More images and architect’s description after the break.
Suburban idyll – in the middle of the metropolis
Boston in the year 2010 is an exciting and diverse city with green areas, modern skyscrapers and nice urban areas with sloping streets and town houses in the Beacon Hill district with its proud traditions. According to Christian Bay-Jorgensen, it is important to hold on to the diversity when planning the new part of the town called South Boston in order not to end up with a dreary and uniform urban environment dominated by square boxes as often seen in big American cities. And that is exactly what he intends to achieve with Boston Fusion.
“We have designed the building as a hilly countryside on 17 floors, where the top three floors are penthouse apartments extended into the roof surface. Below the apartments are offices, cafés, shops and open green squares and in addition there are sloping pathways twisting from the street level all the way to the rooftop. The idea is to create an intimate suburban idyll inside the construction and in this way develop a whole new version of the good life in an apartment house,” he says and continues:
”Imagine that you step out into your own private garden on the 17th floor early in the morning and enjoy the rising sun, which reflects in the skyline and the water of the harbour. When you leave the apartment you are immediately part of the city flow – you step directly into an environment which is nice and alive – and you feel safe and sound,” Christian Bay-Jorgensen says enthusiastically.
Sustainability from a to z
He emphasizes that as much as the inspiration from Beacon Hill represents the social sustainability, the project is also architecturally in line with the modern office buildings of Boston’s finance district, which represent the financial viability of Boston Fusion. The business part with the office rental service etc. will contribute to make the project profitable for both investors and developers. At the same time the integrated Eco Activ pro-environmental products from Icopal represent the sustainable energy supply.
“We combine the different elements into one great building with a length of more than 450 meters and a total of 195,000 square meters. This is Bay Arch’s suggestion for a construction which is sustainable in every way – both in relation to the social, economical and energy aspect,” says Christian Bay-Jorgensen.
An integrated interactive livable roofscape
Boston Fusion is among the first projects in the world that both activates the roofscape by integrating roof terraces and green roofs and creates a very active roof, which generates money to the investors and at the same time has a positive effect on the environment.
“It is standard procedure to leave roofs unexploited. But this is an undesirable solution in a time with drastic climate change and thus a natural need for energy saving procedures and development of sustainable solutions,” says Christian Bay-Jorgensen and adds, that one of the reasons for choosing Boston as location for the project is the city’s great wish for combating the local environment problems and because the climate can be compared to that of North Europe. The experience gained in Boston can be applied directly to similar projects in Denmark and surrounding countries.
Building produces electric power and generates heat
For the project Boston Fusion Christian Bay-Jorgensen has chosen to integrate newly developed eco-technologies for the fifth facade; products developed by Icopal. The products used are air purifying roofing felt, a heat generating roof, a roof solution with integrated solar cells producing electric power and a green roof, which is not only a delight to the eye but also relieves the pressure on the sewerage system in the city and binds pollutants of the environment.
The four products form part of the new Icopal Eco Activ concept, which consists of environmentally friendly and energy-friendly solutions. They are all integrated in the roof in order not to disturb the aesthetics of the building and to give maximum durability. But why has Christian Bay-Jorgensen chosen to use the new products from Icopal?
”Because they open up for a sustainable activation of the roof which on the one hand has a very favourable affect on the environment and on the other hand contributes with the production of electric power and generation of heat to the building. In this way Eco Activ supports both a sustainable living and the total economy of the project. It is a visionary and responsible way to construct new buildings, says Christian Bay-Jorgensen, and adds that it has been important for him to use Icopal as a creative partner with specialist knowledge in relation to the integration of the Eco Activ products in the project. “Their knowledge has contributed to the optimization of the final solution, both technically and aesthetically,” he says.
Eco-friendly rooftops
The technical manager of Icopal Danmark, Bjarne Pedersen, has nothing but words of praise for the cooperation with Bay Arch.
“To our eyes Christian Bay-Jorgensen is one of the most talented and skilled young, Danish architects at the moment. He is visionary and has a remarkable faculty of setting the agenda internationally and showing new exciting ways for the architecture. For us as a company it is a pleasure to work together with him.”
Bjarne Pedersen is pleased that Bay Arch has chosen to develop a sustainable building using Icopal’s eco-friendly roofing products. He emphasizes that investors, residents and the Boston environment all benefit from the chosen Eco Activ solutions, which give significant environmental as well as financial advantages.
The roof generates an energy supply equalling the electricity consumption of more than 250 houses
“Our calculations show that the solar cell solution, which has been integrated in the roof in this project, will generate approx. 110 MWh CO2 neutral electric power on an annual basis. The green IcoMoss roof installed on the approx. 4000 m2 roof absorbs around 1300 m3 water per year. The approx. 4600 m2 large Noxite rooftop will decompose NOx particles from car exhaust gases equivalent to approx. 140,000 driven kilometres per year. Finally, the 4,600 m2 roof installed with Energitag, which has been integrated in the rooftops, produces more than 1,550 MWh heat annually by using 700 MWh power. All in all the total energy production of the roof amounts to approx. 1,660 MWh on a yearly basis, an amount which is the equivalent of the electricity consumption of more than 400 Danish households. From this amount, however, must be deducted the electric power used to run the heat pump of the Energitag and the actual savings correspond to the electricity consumption of approx. 250 households”, says the technical manager of Icopal Danmark, Bjarne Pedersen.
