Dallas Text 2.1

What if you could make more energy by building more housing?

Dallas Peaks is a 600,000sf high-density residential downtown project that challenges the traditional relationship between housing and the city, transforming a typology of wasteful consumption into a new model for ecological productivity, economical viability and urban community.

The project, located in Dallas’ Central Business District, is a formation of 500 apartments above 75,000sf of commercial and 40,000sf of arable farmland shaped maximize the on-site production of energy, introduce a rural setting and enhance community dynamics.

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 positioned to exploit the 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 and 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 response to opportunities provided by the immediate ecological conditions.

What if you could spend less money by making more energy?

Dallas Peaks’ produces more energy than it consumes, technically annulling its demand from the existing urban infrastructure by applying a new and profitable business model.

Under typical financing models, the large costs associated with an energy producing system of such magnitude 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.

The sole reduction of energy consumption within a building does not make environmentally responsive architecture.

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 production of energy 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.

The collaboration between developer and energy provider does not only have a positive effect on the environment, but it increases the financial profit of the downtown site and implicitly brings economic benefits to the city.