A SELF-SUFFICIENT TIMBER TOWER
This is a project aiming to address some of the most urgent problems of the modern office worker and the world today: Global Warming and Well-Being.
Sustainability is an essential part of my design; introducing biophilic farming and sustainable energy production through photovoltaic panels within the building to reduce our impact on the environment. As the modern built environment has disconnected humans from the natural environment, the proposal for this biophilic design is meant to improve the users’ and the surrounding community's mental well-being, productivity, and reconnection to nature. The tower doesn’t only aim to improve the health of its occupants, but also the health of our planet.
Mixed-Use Timber Tower, situated along the Mancunian Way consists of 30 storeys, comprising of multiple biophilic floors within this commercial office tower to provide a multi-sensory experience to users that psychologically stimulates creativity and encourages users to be active throughout the building. The building welcomes nature back into the building and connects the users to the elements and the environments orchestra throughout the design.
The biophilic green floors introduce a form of farming within the tower, that generates biomass energy, which is used in the building, and organic produce, that is sold to the community via the organic shop on the ground floor. Not only does the building affect the users but due to its semi-public nature, weaves itself into the existent community. The shared facilities such as the building landscape, roof garden, vertical community park can also be accessed by the community, increasing productivity within the building and social interaction, thus helping with the mental health of the users.
The building’s landscaping is focused on hosting community, breathing new life through the vast vertical public park that effectively compensates for the lack of green in the surrounding area. The office becomes not only a place for work but a lively hotspot for social productivity and nurtures the connections of the multi-specied community.
