OPEN-GROUND

Project implementation: USA
Project development: USA

OPEN-GROUND is a proposal for an architecture of outdoor public leisure for hot, humid, toxic, and flood-prone climates. Modeled on the shaded sports courts typical of Houston, the project deploys a thick roof, hollow ground, and thermal chimneys to shade and cool this difficult environment while making a space for community gathering.

The space frame roof is loosely filled with recycled insulation material, functioning as a thermal barrier to slow heat gain in the courts beneath. Belowground, an array of tubular chambers functions as a stormwater detention, toxicity filter, and water harvesting system. Connecting the roof and reservoirs below, a series of cylindrical ventilation structures provide conduits for buoyant air. These thermal stacks create a microclimatic engine, using temperature, humidity, and pressure differentials to ventilate and cool the open-air space.

Not only does this cooling center build up the capacity for on-site water detention, it also proposes how climate infrastructures can function beyond bare shelter. OPEN-GROUND offers the political position that the role of architecture in the Anthropocene is to hybridize the relationship between public life and terrestrial systems. The project’s underbelly of pipes and conduits, crisscrossing beams, and soil substrates imagines architecture as part of a planetary stack, mediating a site’s geologies, hydrologies, and atmospheres to offer a new space to gather under the sun.

HOME-OFFICE is a research and design collaborative that explores the reciprocity between architectural types, their technical assemblies, and the environment. HOME-OFFICE was founded by Brittany Utting and Daniel Jacobs in 2017 and is based in Houston, Texas. Brittany Utting is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at Rice University and Daniel Jacobs is an Instructional Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Houston.

Participate in the program of debates, workshops and associated activities!

TODAY (10.10)

2:30 pm – table Risk-Free Periphery in the Context of Climate Change

4pm – table Knowing to Transform: Community Climate Risk Reduction and Adaptation Plans

6:30 pm – table Inclusive Adaptation: Nature-Based Solutions in the Peripheries

9am – Drawing Workshop: Oscar Niemeyer's Architecture in Ibirapuera Park and the Climate Challenge

IN THE NEXT DAYS (11 to 14.10)

ATTENTION the table Palmas: For 36 years, the ecological capital of Tocantins which would be held on 10/11 | 7pm was canceled.

11.10 and 12.10 | 9am – workshop Inventa(rio) Fronteiras: Playing for Multispecies Cities

11.10 | 10am – workshop Elémenterre teaching bag

11.10 | 11am – table Learning to inhabit the Anthropocene: the crisis of architecture

11.10 | 2pm – table Architecture for Learning and Civic Use

11.10 | 3pm – table Culture and Public Architecture

11.10 – 15h – workshop Elémenterre teaching bag

11.10 | 4pm – table Reconnecting with Nature & Circular Design

11.10 | 5pm – table Architecture of Belonging: Interpreting Heritage Through Place

12.10 | 10am – table Experience: Climate Refuges and Naturalized Public Spaces, with Eco-Neighborhood

12.10 | 10:30 am – table Childhoods and Climate: Climate Justice in Vulnerable Territories

12.10 | 10:30 am – Windsock Workshop with the Floating Collective

12.10 | 3pm – table Doing a lot with a little: architectures for a planet in transition with Esteban Benavides from Al Borde office

12.10 | 4:30 pm – table Earth – building a sustainable and democratic future

12.10 | 5:45 pm – table French presence at the Biennale and screening of the film AJAP – Albums of Young Architects and Landscape Architects

13.10 – activity Pantanal Action at IABsp

10/14 | 10am – table Urgent Panorama! Space as an act of permanence

14.10 | 6pm – Launch of the “Nature-Based Education” Guide

JOIN! IT'S ALL FREE!

And there's much more until October 19th!

NOTE OF CONDOLENCE

With deep sorrow, the Brazilian Institute of Architects – São Paulo Department (IABsp) mourns the passing of architect and landscape architect Kongjian Yu, a global leader in ecological urbanism, and the members of his team who accompanied him, tragically killed during the filming of a documentary. The institute is honored to have had him as a participant in the 14th São Paulo International Architecture Biennial, where his transformative vision strengthened the dialogue between global challenges and local realities. IABsp emphasizes that Yu's contribution, which transcends borders, will remain an inspiration for generations and expresses its condolences to China, to the families of all the deceased, to his friends, and to all those impacted by his genius and dedication. Read the full note here.

HOME-OFFICE [Daniel Jacobs & Brittany Utting]