Rendered view of the Apartments.
An experiment in living green...
The Hempcrete apartments in the Garfield Neighborhood, Pittsburgh, are imagined as historic investment into a working-class neighborhood in the form of a mixed-use residential & commercial complex. The building is developed alongside an urban agriculture initiative that grows hemp on a nearby post-industrial site. Local workers would then process that hemp at a nearby factory into hempcrete blocks - a novel building material that is CO2-negative, fireproof, and thermally insulative.
The building itself is two floors of apartments over one floor of commercial space, and each phase of building is interrupted by a street-facing pedestrian plaza. CLT fins and floor plates provide the structural frame, while hempcrete makes up the exterior walls. Because hempcrete is vulnerable to water, the building takes on an inverted zigurat shape so that upper floors shelter lower ones. Additionally, a curtain of staggered planters layers on top to provide further protection & greenery for residents.
This was a partner project with classmate Emily Edlich, whose contributions are labeled as they appear.
Plans for the apartments. Two floors of residential over one floor of commercial space.
A 3d-printed model. (By Emily Edlich)
A site plan showing the fields & factory (left) and apartments (right) in orange.
A wall section & architectural section through a plaza.
A titled axonometric view showing the plan & West elevation. (By Emily Edlich)
East elevation & worms-eye perspective of the factory.
A home for Next-gen industry...
Additionally, we designed a factory space for the processing of hempcrete. The factory building is itself a similar CLT structure with hempcrete walls. It includes classrooms, bathrooms, offices, and hemp processing space daylit by generous polycarbonate windows. As a green industry building it sits nestled in between fields, each wall spiraling off to create space that reaches out into the landscape.
While this was a partner project, I did principal design work for this building and created its drawings.
Plan of the factory.
E-W section through the factory, showing its relationship to a nearby industrial site.