Movement & Transformation (Mõtus: moving, motion, movement)
The operation of the moving screens and shells of the two highly glazed areas of the office and the living/dining area are best understood as analogous to removing layers of clothing with regard to change in weather; both of these areas feature moving shells, screens and glass panels that provide variable levels of privacy, day-lighting, heat gain and air flow. The living/dining area has virtually unlimited combinations of screen and shell positions.
The screens and shells ride on tracks and are automatically retracted as desired, producing a completely transformative environment at the owner’s whim or can be set automatically to adjust to changing climatic variables. The cantilevered office/studio also has unlimited configurations of screen and shell positions. The glass sides can also be rolled back creating a virtual open-air office. Adjusting the office’s climatic and privacy control systems will be analogous to and as convenient as adjusting the comfort settings on one’s office chair.
Sustainable Features (Ventus: Wind, Breeze)
This private residence is organized so as to embrace and utilize the features of a unique landscape and dramatic sloping site. The topographically integrated cup form is sited towards prevailing winds and is designed to increase wind speed and resultant energy five-fold. The resultant wind-produced energy is stored for later use via hydrogen fuel cells. A 218’ pool of water is situated at the edge of the house along the ridge and two other pools provide micro-climate cooling.
A pergola of photovoltaics run the length of the house, and the decking on the face of the cup is constructed of composite photovoltaics. A vegetative rooftop garden and other sustainable building systems and materials are integral to the design. Heating, cooling and daylighting of the fully glazed “home office” and main living area can be actively micro-managed with fully retractable insulated shells and sunscreens. The photovoltaic array, four embedded bi-directional wind turbines, and fuel cells provide power to meet all operational needs enabling the house to be remotely located off the grid.
What is a sustainable development?
A. “Sustainable means using methods, systems and materials that won’t deplete resources or harm natural cycles” (Rosenbaum, 1993).
B. Sustainability “identifies a concept and attitude in development that looks at a site’s natural land, water, and energy resources as integral aspects of the development” (Vieira,1993)
C. “Sustainability integrates natural systems with human patterns and celebrates continuity, uniqueness and placemaking”
“Sustainable developments are those which fulfill present and future needs while [only] using and not harming renewable resources and unique human-environmental systems of a site: [air], water, land, energy, and human ecology and/or those of other [off-site] sustainable systems.” (Rosenbaum 1993 and Vieria 1993). Sustainability is based on a simple principle: Everything that we need for our survival and well-being depends, either directly or indirectly, on our natural environment.
Sustainability creates and maintains the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony, that permit fulfilling the social, economic and other requirements of present and future generations.
Sustainability is important to making sure that we have and will continue to have, the water, materials, and resources to protect human health and our environment and this philosophy is at the heart of Mõ Ventus.
Unique Features
Among the innovations and unique features of this home, the most identifying and perhaps iconic feature of the house is the huge wind (ventus) cup, which captures wind energy for fuel cell storage. In the spirit of the most rigorous modern design manifestos it’s elegant curve is both beautiful and supremely functional. A one of a kind residential form without precedent. Also prominent and exclusive to this house is the cantilevered office space (a nostalgic nod to Frank Gehry’s Venice Beach Home and Office for screenwriter and director Bill Norton).
Mõ Ventus’s office is again a one of a kind office space without precedent in regards to the cantilever and transformative apparatuses. This office space is an unusual workspace, allowing one to be literally and fully in the world while simultaneously, via cantilever, isolated from its distractions, creating an inspirational yet highly productive working environment. A few extra and somewhat atypical house features are: beach access via a fun yet functional interior tube slide (cp. Carsten Holler’s 5-story Tate Modern tube slide, London).
Proposed commission from Carsten Holler and integrated from the uppermost reaches of the house to the beach with several entry points between. Another feature is an outdoor amphitheater built into the lower half of the Ventus cup with radiant heat step seating and a hydraulically risen weatherproof 25′ diagonal flat screen for group movie screening or other digital media events with a stunning ocean/water backdrop (cp. Zurichhorn; Open Air Cinema).
This deck area also contains cooking pits and a built-in dining table and seating for entertaining. On account of the floor plan’s linear configuration of bedrooms along the top edge, the footprint of the residence can range between 5,000-12,000 square feet depending on the owner’s desired final configuration and actual site conditions. The house is designed to be holistically balanced and technologically driven, but seductively designed, sited, and detailed. Source by FIXd Architecture/Design.
