Dallas Text 2.0

1.DESIGN driven by housing, energy and business model

-concept/ statement

What if energy production would maximize the financial efficiency of urban development?

-what

Dallas Peaks is a 600,000 sf, high-density residential project situated in the Central Business District that reinvents the relationship between people, housing and the city, transforming a typology of wasteful consumption into a new model for ecological productivity, social diversity and economical viability.

The project is a formation of 500 apartments addressing a broad spectrum of socio-economic conditions, above 75,000 sf of commercial and 40,000 sf of arable farmland, articulated to emphasize natural lighting, ventilation and spatial diversity of the living units, while maximizing the renewable energy production.

-how

The typical metropolitan residential building has inflated into a massive block of deep floorplates, artificial lighting and an inherent dependence on extensive mechanical ventilation systems.

- By splitting a conventional block into a series of individual peaks, the average depth of floorplates is cut in half, taking advantage of natural ventilation and light, automatically reducing the building’s energy demand.

- The Peaks are manipulated with slight variations to increase the site’s potential to harness solar and wind energy: shadowing is minimized on the south-facing facades to provide for 60,000 sf of optimal photovoltaic panels; The sloped edges of the peaks act as wind-accelerating ridges for the installation of over 220 vertical-axis wind turbines.

The design of Dallas Peaks is no more than a social conscious response to opportunities provided by the immediate ecological conditions.

2. ENERGY and BUSINESS MODEL

-goal

The ambition of Dallas Peaks is to produce more energy than it consumes, technically annulling its demand from the existing urban infrastructure.

-why

The concept of ‘green’ buildings is focused on minimizing the energy consumption of structures, while addressing energy production only at a symbolic level.

However, the sole reduction of energy consumption within a building does not make environmentally responsive architecture. While it ensures a reduction of the CO2 footprint, it fails to address the big picture: the source of energy. By doing so, so-called sustainable projects remain parasites, passive entities fundamentally dependent on the established infrastructure, reliant merely on the literal understanding of ‘green’, while leaving it to other fields to solve the burning issues.

-what

Dallas Peaks proposes urban production of renewable energy as a new and profitable business model.

Under normal circumstances the large costs associated with either the production or the infrastructure necessary to bring renewable energy to the city, negate their feasibility.

Paradoxically, it is the maximized productive capacity achieved through the design of Dallas Peaks that maximizes the financial potential of the downtown site. The financial success is dependent on the extent of energy produced on site which in turn is dependent on the design.

-how

The infrastructural productivity of the project allows Dallas Peaks to anchor a three-party relationship with the city energy grid and private energy providers. The energy systems are paid for, installed, maintained and managed by the providers, whom the volume of onsite production guarantees a 5 year return of investment scheme based on selling the clean energy to the power grid. Dallas Peaks receives a percentage of the profits and also nullifies/ discharges the additional load on the urban energy network.