Youngs Farm was founded in 1893 when John Youngs married Ida Hegeman, thus Youngs Farm on Hegemans Lane. It is now five generations running. Currently Remsen and Tim Dooley, along with Remsen’s mother, Paula Youngs Weir own and operate the farm, kitchen and market. Remsen and Tim have been engaged in ownership and operations over the last 15 years, cobbling together operations and making ad-hoc improvements while taking the farm through an ownership transition. With this assessment and planning eff ort they would like to make a holistic evaluation of the farm and transition the facilities from roadside farm stand to more all-encompassing grounds with more robust sales capacity including: a visually integrated farming and baking program; updated and efficient food preparation and storage opportunities; environ-mental education opportunities with mission driven interventions.
The small roadside farm stand sits amid lush greenery, with the iconic Gold Coast mansions in the distance. It has a commercial kitchen and bakery on-site, putting out soups, quiches, pot pies, cookies, breads, muffins, biscuits, scones, pies, and cakes.
This collaboration with Youngs Farm aims to coalesce the ideas of the Farm’s multiple voices and interests into the re-imagining of contemporary yet historically relevant facilities. This Master Plan will form and
articulate an appropriate vision that is focused on the people who this facility will serve. At the same time the Plan will provide an integrated architectural and landscape solution that authentically reflects this unique organization and local landmark. Through farm visits and engaged conversations with the Youngs Farm team, baile-studio will listen, record, evaluate and distill information and frame the design, engineering, and cost considerations.
This project inserts itself among the rich architectural fabric of the Isle of Capri’s coastline. Tiberius’ Villa Jovis celebrates the integrity of Roman power. The incomparable Casa Malaparte effortlessly sits on a remote promontory- a burnt red volume nestled among the orange limestone cliffs- you couldn’t imagine the coastline without the house there. Curzio Malaparte said of this section of the Capri coastline, ‘a place, in truth, only fit for strong men, for free spirits; nature expresses itself with incomparable and cruel strength.’
The site, located off the southeast coast of the Isle of Capri, is known as the Faraglioni. The Faraglioni consists of two giant masses of rock rising out of the Mediterranean to create a vertical space fifty feet wide by seventy feet deep by one-hundred ten feet tall. A chapel is placed in the void as a direct response to the site. The chapel is a vessel balanced between the giant rocks of the Faraglioni. Christian monasticism had its conceptual roots in the belief that union with God could best be attained by withdrawal from civilization into harsh and isolated regions.
These ancient landmarks announce themselves along the western Italian coastline. How does one design and build something between them that has an integrity of its own while not overwhelming the magnificence of the site? The chapel is a response to the mass and absolute nature of the rocks, with its subtle, slender form. It cuts the wind that passes through the rocks and diffuses the water that falls upon it. The chapel commands its own presence while hiding itself within the rocks. The space, the void, is full of tension and the chapel uses the tension in hosting a place of worship.
Built in 1913 by Southern Pacific, this single-story Craftsman-style building originally served as Los Altos’ passenger and freight depot, and was the first economic endeavor to encourage business development in the city. After a vehicular boulevard replaced the railroad tracks, the depot was repurposed several times over many decades, and though registered as a historic landmark in 1984, the building became stagnant and fell into disrepair.
Despite its neglect, our client recognized the building’s potential as a gathering place for family, friends, and community. Nestled near the main intersection of the City’s commercial district, the depot showed promise for fulfilling her objective to create an artisan bakery and cafe. She intended to showcase the craftsmanship of the building while reenergizing the historic landmark.
The building’s renovation involved extensive interior modifications to past retrofits that had caused major obstructions to circulation and natural light. With a creative and thoughtful redesign, the building’s previous challenges became features of the new café. A full-height vitrine adjacent to the cafe’s flexible group dining area now showcases culinary activity and fosters public intrigue while illuminating a bustling kitchen. The coffee bar, configured as a peninsula, allows interaction between patron and server for immediate transaction or extended stay. The depot’s original open-air platform is now a linear space devoted to individual and paired seating, with an extension to the north offering opportunities for intimate gatherings, with casual seating adjacent to a standalone fireplace.
The former railroad depot is now clad with timeless finishes, cleanly detailed custom millwork, comfortable furnishings, and an abundance of natural light. The refined color palette is intentionally subtle, with reflective bright white walls and a ceiling grounded by monolithic, ashen wood floor. The rich depth of old-growth redwood, warm hickory, anodized aluminum, and natural steel further complement the artisan breads, pastries, and beverages of this sophisticated neighborhood bakery.
The JVP International NYC Cyber Center is a workplace incubator hosting startups and entrepreneurs, connecting them to a cyber alliance including investors, multinational companies, leading executives, entrepreneurs, and universities within the New York ecosystem. Within the Center, JVP nurtures startups to help them scale, providing strategic guidance, business development support, funding, and access to leading universities such as Columbia, Cornell Tech, NYU, and CUNY.
For its fledging NYC location, JVP identified the 1879 cast iron Mills and Gibbs building at 462 Broadway, the largest, fully- clad cast iron structure within the SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District. The two primary objectives for this workplace renovation were 1) Respect and pay homage to the raw industrial nature of the historic building, and 2) create spaces that drive collaboration and foster innovation.
The three story, 25,000sf renovation features a street level presence with a reception area, coffee bar, publicly accessible communal table, and rentable office spaces. An blackened steel and wood stair is introduced at the first level and connects all three floors. The sculptural and airy stair pays homage to the raw materials endemic in the buildings, and encourages users to walk between floors. Gathering spaces, or ‘Town Squares’ are located where the stair lands at each level- introducing opportunities for chance encounter, exchanges of ideas, or all hands meetings. These central spaces play host to community events within the office collective.
The workplace layout takes an egalitarian approach, prioritizing light, air and views for all- locating open desking along the building’s perimeter and meeting spaces and conferencing along the interior core. Original cast iron columns and old growth structural timbers are preserved and celebrated. A simple material palette of steel, wood and glass are introduced and organized within the spaces providing minimal and sympathetic interventions. Any necessary partitions float free within the space allowing the rigor of the column grid and structure to visually carry through the workplace.
To understand and intelligently respond to the parameters of the competition, the design process included multiple facets. An energy consultant and general contractor immediately became integral to the team. Appropriate energy and construction systems were discussed before forms were even sketched upon paper. Concurrently, the history and culture of the region were researched and the LBC goals understood. What resulted is an integrated systems approach that has intelligently informed the architectural intent.
Indigenous strategies are celebrated in the design. A long, berm-like wall insulates and protects the house from the prevailing northern winds. The traditional Aleut home, the barabara, similarly used the earth as protection from the elements. An arctic entry is incorporated to buffer against the harsh climate, as often seen in cold climate precedents. Subsistence living with a culture of sharing gathered and hunted food has been part of traditional Aleut living. Through strategies of providing appropriate space as well as encouraging community involvement, the home is designed to invigorate some of these indigenous strategies in a modern way.
To design a home embodying the imperatives of creating a living building, one of the largest challenges has been the site itself. A large hill, situated to the south of the site, blocks much of the limited direct sunlight that reaches this latitude. Embracing the challenge, the home still functions to satisfy the LBC without sacrificing function or architecture. Passivhaus strategies of creating a highly insulative and sealed building envelope are fundamental to the design, significantly increasing the envelope’s efficiency while decreasing the heating energy demand. Heat is recovered even as return air is replenished by fresh air. While the home is designed for a specific site, it is replicable on a variety of sites throughout the Aleutian Islands. On a site receiving a greater amount of sunlight, the home can take advantage of this solar energy and reduce dependency on electric water heaters through the use of solar water heaters and passive heat gain through the southern glazing. In this case, the wind turbine may be downsized, taking advantage of the reduced demand on electricity.
SITE
The house sits slightly raised above the landscape upon a foundation of helical piers. The piers have minimal impact upon the site and require no extensive sitework, accommodating varying site circumstances. The system can be removed if necessary, and the landscape of native species including cladonia, angelica, crow berry and hair moss is almost instantly restored.
In addition to respecting the natural landscape, the design encourages self-sustenance for residents. A large outdoor garden irrigated by the home’s grey water allows for the growth of potatoes, cabbages, carrots, turnips and radishes. Since the growing season is short, a root cellar passively stores many of the vegetables throughout the winter. A small shed with a chicken coop provides a meat processing/storage area as well as storage for fishing equipment. Meats are dried and salted in a space separate from the home maintaining the comfort of the home.
WATER
As clean water sources are quickly depleted throughout the world, careful consideration has been given to water supply and use strategies within the home. The roof has been designed to allow for 100% stormwater collection over its entire surface. Net zero water is achieved by collecting, filtering, purifying, and storing this rainwater for all potable water needs. This storage of potable water is multifunctional. The house features a full length “water wall”, sized to meet all potable water demands. The linear storage tank provides structure as well as natural seasonal benefits: when the wall is full during the winter, the extra insulation protects the house from cold temperatures and the northern prevailing winds. The added thermal mass helps regulate temperature swings throughout the day. Waste water from sinks and shower are filtered and purified to be used again as grey water for laundry, irrigation, and replenishment of the water table.
Black water from toilets and kitchen sinks typically needs to be directed away from the house to unsustainable waste treatment centers. Here, a compost toilet creates fertilizer for non-edible vegetation, and an undersink grey water filter traps food and grease, producing grey water that can be reused.
ENERGY
To date, energy needs on the Aleutian Island chain are typically met solely by unrenewable sources, specifically gas and oil. An integrated systems approach coupled with passive strategies and efficient appliances, fixtures, and equipment allows for an energy plan that is intelligent in both the short and long terms. The house is built to be insulated and sealed per PassivHaus standards to allow maximum energy recovery and savings. Hot water is provided by efficient on-demand water heaters, and space heating is provided by hydronically-heated mass walls. These structural partition walls are heated for only a few hours a day. When the system is not running, stored heat in the thermal walls continues to radiate out and warm adjacent spaces. To reduce energy loss, the windows of the house can shutter closed at night to trap in heat.
The energy that is needed is provided by a single on-site 1.9kW wind turbine. Geothermal, solar, and hydroelectric power were explored as renewable energy sources. Year round, high winds batter the community providing a harsh climate as well as the opportunity for a reliable energy source. The house is netzero with all demands being met by the single turbine. On the community scale, single-family turbines can be avoided and a larger turbine may be installed for multiple houses. Resources and infrastructure can be efficiently shared. A small wind farm is even feasible to provide enough renewable energy for the entire town of Atka. If the home is built on a site with greater potential for solar heat gain, the wind turbine may be downsized to a 1.2kW turbine to take advantage of the reduced demand on electricity.
HEALTH
The house can shutter closed at night and fully open up during the day, a process mimicking several plant species whose flowers close during the night hours to preserve resources. While the house has this ability to “button up”, operable windows line the living spaces, easily permitting user-controlled ventilation. When weather eliminates the desire to open up windows, an Energy Recovery Ventilator transfers heat from exhaust return air to fresh supply air from the outdoors.
The architecture itself is inherently biophilic, providing a healthy, thriving environment for occupants. From the interior, views are towards the southern, open and natural landscape. Additionally, strategic locations of the house feature full-height windows allowing a spatial connection to the surroundings. The north wall is covered with moss and runs the length of the entire building. Here, the landscape wraps up the face of wall and shelters the house from prevailing northern winds. When viewed from the exterior, the wall becomes an extension of the landscape. The remaining exterior facades are clad in corrugated metal, creating a soft surface upon which light plays and changes throughout the day. Local stone aggregate is used in the concrete mix for the thermal mass walls tilted up into place by the community. The house is directly linked to the people that live within and around it.
MATERIALS
The majority of the home’s construction consists of prefabricated panels with structure, insulation, and finishes fabricated and ready for assembly. These structural insulated panels have been used in LBC precedents and are fabricated with no redlisted materials. All building materials used promote healthy environments and satisfy LBC imperatives. Most materials are procured and organized in Seattle, providing an efficient workflow of on- and off-load in Seattle and Atka. Since the panels are manufactured in a controlled and efficient environment, construction embodied emissions as well as on-site construction waste are kept to a minimal. Local labor can be employed to construct the house, building up the skills and experience of a community that can utilize these skills for future projects. Once the house is constructed and occupied, there are no operational emissions.
Historically, waste building materials have filled a staggering portion of landfills around the world. In an effort to address this, the house is designed so that deconstruction will result in recyclable components. The corrugated cladding, lumber, and service pods of the house can be reused. Helical piers can be removed and reused at a new project site, and the landscape can easily return to its natural state. Occupants of the house are encouraged to compost, further diverting materials from landfills.
EQUITY
The home is inherently livable and comfortable. Spaces are intimate and efficient, yet comfortably spaced through a tight layout. Reducing the footprint results in more efficient energy use through construction and use. The house is accessible, designed as a single level with an entry ramp or stair based upon occupant needs. The home is subtle and does not impede visually or physically upon neighbors or the community. In fact, through community involvement, the home is intended to inspire public good and future architecture.
BEAUTY
Careful consideration has been given to visibly exposing the functions of the house. The linear water storage tank has a viewing portal that allows occupants to gauge potable water supply and usage and provide the opportunity to educate and raise awareness. The home additionally relates to the indigenous culture, re-imagined and modernized. Using these strategies can both inspire and inform future projects in Atka and on the Aleutian Island chain.
Intentionally subtle, the home celebrates simplicity and stands in harmony with its surroundings. The design is meant to serve and delight the user both aesthetically and architecturally in a natural and unassuming way.
Hiking cabins set along the Latvian coast line- a section of trail known as ‘The Amber Road’ – an ancient trade route that stretches from Venice to St. Petersburg. This little project was a lot of fun as it married some personal interests- hiking and trekking- with my professional interests- specifically designing with timber.
I’ve spent a lot of time hiking established (and some not so established) hiking routes with rustic accommodations. In California’s Sierra Nevada mountains there’s the extensive backcountry hut system where I’ve been lucky to enjoy many an adventure with a lot of my BCJ comrades. We had a great crew in SF who did an annual long weekend trip out to the Ostrander Hut in the middle of Yosemite- a 10 mile each way trek only accessible by snowshoe or backcountry ski- typically done with enough bagged wine and fondue to last 3 days. In Europe I’ve hiked the GR20 across Corsica, the West Highland Way in the highlands of Scotland, the Lycian Way following old Roman ruins across the south of Turkey, and the famous Haute Route from Chamonix to Zermatt. I’ve always appreciated how these refuges were basic, yet highly functional, and built with local materials.
Forests are the outstanding feature of Latvia, with woodlands covering over 50% of the countryside- made up mostly of Pine, Spruce, and Birch. Nearly all forests in Latvia are publicly accessible, therefore one of the most widespread pastimes of the population is picking bilberries, cranberries, mushrooms, and other bounties of natural environment… people like getting out into nature, and are pretty facile building with this endemic material.
The competition requested a low impact, transient and inhabitable infrastructure adaptable to the various site conditions along the route- including vast pine forests, dunes and white sand beaches rich with amber deposits. These hiking huts sought to leverage local familiarity and expertise with wood. A tall slender structure that touches the ground lightly, reflecting the verticality of the pine forests. The hikers are drawn up off the ground ascending into the belly of the structure. Four rectangular portals are fit into the vertical structure, each providing a personal sleeping bunk floating int the trees, with framed views out to the forest. A glass vessel hangs in the center of the space- used to collect the amber nuggets collected along the hike. The vessel tells the story about how the shelter might evolve over time, making a connection to the landscape and making a connection amongst its disparate visitors. As the hikers gather the amber it is brought to the shelter and deposited in a glass vessel. The collection grows over time and the vessel becomes an amber lantern. As more amber is collected the shelter glows brighter. The building becomes an active participant in telling its own local story.