Emerging from the success of neighbouring apartment building The Commons, Nightingale 1 is the inaugural project of the Nightingale Model – a replicable, triple bottom line housing model with an overarching priority towards social, economic and environmental sustainability.

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At it’s heart, Nightingale 1 is all about people. Its architecture serves as a catalyst to unite a group of similar values and build a community. Apartments are affordable, sustainable, and easy to live in. Purchaser engagement from early stages has allowed the building to be designed completely with the end user in mind.

Nightingale’s form is a simple response to Brunswick’s industrial heritage. Its steel framed winter-gardens respond to traditional warehouse characteristics whilst its recycled cream brick responds to the single storey single brick warehouses that once populated the vicinity.

The ground floor of Nightingale is about creating engagement between the Nightingale residents and the street, whilst reaching out to the wider Brunswick community. Seating nooks and a semi public laneway to the heart of the building activate the ground floor. Importantly, we looked beyond the drawing board to find values aligned organisations to occupy and to engage. Young up and comers Branch Studio Architects and Home.One, a not for profit who train homeless people in hospitality, look out onto Florence Street. Nightingale Housing, the organisation, are our anchor tenant looking out onto the lush fernery. Basing themselves here, allows them to take tours of the building so that future architects, city makers and residents can see and feel what its like to live in a Nightingale.

Nightingale 1 is made up of a series of meaningful architectural moments. The planning was kept simple. Materiality took precedence over form.

Hand painted signage lead residents through a cobblestone entry, lined with a tapestry of recycled brickwork.

Lift lobbies lined by natural Blackbutt timber battens, mild steel plate and inset coir matting nooks, signal entries to generous apartments with a soft palette of waxed timber floors, concrete ceilings and carefully curated, exposed services. The northern apartments look out through a shipping chain screen, providing the framework for deciduous grape vines to occupy.

The rooftop decks, surrounded by lush greenery overlook The Commons and the city beyond. The rooftop is about community and is divided into two parts. The north is about the utility of living – a simple communal laundry, water tanks and pumps, potting shed, clothesline and productive garden plots. The south is about people coming together. Seating nooks nestled behind clusters of vegetation, an outdoor dining room and a rooftop lawn area for the Nightingale children to run and play.

Being on the rooftop and seeing how the residents interact with it and each other, demonstrates that Nightingale truly achieved its goal – a triple bottom line building that is sustainable, affordable and built community.

Nightingale is exceptional in its sustainability outcomes.

It is the first building in the country to be connected under an embedded network that is 100% fossil fuel free. Nightingale is carbon neutral in its operation – no gas.

We designed the building, the electrical reticulation, the owners corporation rules and the embedded network and metering systems and the metering and sharing of the solar so that every Nightingale resident receives 100% green power.

Nightingale includes:

Passive principles achieving an average 8.2 stars

• Parking for 42 bicycles
• Car Share
• Rooftop gardens
• Shared rooftop laundry
• Natural light and ventilation to all bedrooms
• Shared 18kW PV array
• Shared solar hot water system
• Shared hydronic heating boiler
• Re-use of rainwater for irrigation, laundry and shared amenities
• Recycled timber floors
• Exposed concrete structure
• Formply joinery
• Concrete bench tops
• Hydronic heating
• Double glazed, thermally broken windows
• Nightingale excludes:
• Car parking
• Air-conditioning
• Second bathrooms
• Individual laundries
• Plasterboard ceilings
• Chrome
• Toxic finishes

Nightingale 1 is the inaugural project of the Nightingale Model – a replicable, triple bottom line housing model with an overarching priority towards social, economic and environmental sustainability.

The design strategy was to build more with less, adopting an honest material palette and placing emphasis on reduction.

Apartments are affordable, sustainable, generous, easy to live in, and light filled. It is filled with great neighbours and good people – it is home to individuals, couples and families, from all walks of life. You know your neighbours and most have pets. Accommodating all ages without limit, you can grow old here.

The project was about building a place that people wanted to live in, a place they would love, a place they would call home. At it’s heart, Nightingale is all about people. Its architecture serves as a catalyst to unite a group with similar values and build community.

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AMBITION / PREPARATION

University classmates Alex, Tomas and Viktor decided to start their own practice, KOGAA in 2015. Starting lean, they began working from an apartment but had strong aspirations to create their own workspace. Disappointed by the commercial spaces available in Brno which were largely unaffordable and unadaptable for tenants, KOGAA went in a different direction. They began searching for available warehouses, garages and secondary service spaces that could be adaptively re-used for their office, and they considered each potential space based on four important criteria:

• CONSTRUCTION: is it easily convertible?
• MARKETING: would it be attractive to potential clients?
• LEGAL: can it be used as an office space?
• AMENITY: Is there a public space attached or nearby?

While viewing one potential space in a converted warehouse, they took notice of the building next door: a derelict distillate factory from the 19^th century. Originally operated by a local Jewish family, the factory had been disused for decades and KOGAA learned the factory would soon be demolished.

In conversation with the property owner however, the team learned that there were no further plans to develop the factory site once the building was pulled down. This was their opportunity. Despite the factory’s very poor condition and vast size, the team was attracted to its uniquely atmospheric and derelict aesthetic and excited to explore the potential of the industrial space. It would take a substantial amount of work, but the payoff could be bigger than they ever expected.

After a year of persuading the property owner not to demolish the building and negotiating a rental agreement, KOGAA signed a lease for the factory with the ability to renovate, move their office in and sublet spaces other renovated spaces to tenants of their choosing.

CREATION / PROCESS

In November of 2015, Alex, Tomas and Viktor got to work.

“When we came here, the building was falling apart. It was leaking inside. The walls were wet. There was no heating or electricity, absolutely no piping, nothing. No windows…People were really scared [for us], especially our parents.”

They started by tackling the mess around the factory—years of debris dumped from the building sites nearby, covering everything with garbage and old wooden boards. But after a few weeks of cleaning, they discovered a large room hidden by rubbish, and remarkably, it was in decent condition. After a bit of negotiation, KOGAA added this space to their rental agreement, and decided this newfound space would become their future office.

Alex, Tomas and Viktor kept their office in the apartment for almost a year while spending their free time clearing debris and designing their new workspace.  The factory was unattractive and showed crude signs of alteration over time, but KOGAA saw potential for spatial conversions into a new use.

To kick off the design process, they wanted to know where they could create new openings or remove walls in order to develop unique internal spaces. They invited students from the faculty of civil engineering for a visit. Students arrived and surveyed the structure of the building, looking at cracks and other signs of historic or recent structural movement. In the end, the students provided KOGAA with critical analysis on its structural condition, including a comprehensive report on every structural element of the building.

They also invited the heritage protection to the site, potentially a risky move, but described their proposals and earned their full support.

From the outset, Alex, Tomas and Viktor planned to carry out as much renovation work as possible by themselves. They had hands-on experience from summer jobs on building sites and they brought some tools from home. For two summers, they worked on the factory almost nonstop, assisted at times by Viktor’s father’s building company. During the renovations, they hosted workshops in their future office space even though it was unheated and had minimal electricity. KOGAA completed the refurbishment of their workspace and relocated their office to the Distillery right away.     

Once based on site, KOGAA came up with a system for assessing the condition of the remaining spaces in the factory, hoping this would inform a strategy for converting the rest of the building. They surveyed all of the rooms and assigned each space with a letter A, B, C or D to describe the level of work required for the space to be rentable. Unusable space without electricity, piping or windows were given a D. Once a space is made weather-tight and cleaned up, it usually becomes a C. When electricity and lights are installed, the space becomes a B. With heating installed for the winter, a space can then be used for a full year, it becomes an A.

“We realized that when we are physically present here, the works are much faster”, Tomas said, “on top of our work in our architectural office, we worked extra hours on the construction and would just take our working gloves and go fix some lights.”

After surveying the condition of the spaces and understanding the level of improvement required to various spaces, they began a brainstorming process for how to use the rest of the factory. There were many ideas, sketches, potential floor plans and designs for the factory as a “finished product” but no general consensus.

Then, KOGAA were approached by a local cinema group. Their built cinema was under construction, and they asked if they could rent a space in the Distillery for five months as a screening room. KOGAA agreed, removed a partition wall, installed power and lighting, and quickly the largest internal space in the factory was being used as a temporary cinema.

The income generated from the cinema enabled Alex, Tomas and Viktor to renovate another internal space. This incremental, phased refurbishment quickly gave way to the idea of the Social Reactor, in which the tenant groups and projects housed in the Distillery are catalysts for future internal development. The building evolves in direct reaction to the needs of the community.

Just as slow food is the contra to fast food, KOGAA calls this process slow development. With only a shared idea and with no financial capital, they gradually and successfully undertook a large-scale adaptive reuse project by taking small steps: cleaning one space or fixing one light at a time.

When a prospective tenant expresses interest in renting a space at the Distillery, first KOGAA determine if they have specific demands for the space. “Of course, they always do”, Tomas says, “We try to understand their specific needs as users.” Future tenants then pay a few months’ rent in advance and KOGAA use this deposit to cover the costs of alteration to prepare a space based on the tenant’s requirements. In this way, tenants get a personalized, customized space at no additional fee.
 
This approach has kept the Distillery in a constant state of change, growth and improvement. The building improvements are passed on to the community, and tenants settle in to their spaces which were customized for their needs.

LOOKING BACK / RESULTS

KOGAA’s idea to design their own workspace reflecting who they are as a practice—to create a living business card—has been realized and the results have been extraordinary.

Their approach was highly ambitious and required substantial personal investment of time, energy and physical work, but now in addition to their own dream office they have renovated 6 other spaces in the Distillery, serving a community of nearly 30 people and inspiring new businesses in a rapidly changing neighborhood.

Today, KOGAA have moved away from renovating themselves and use professional builders to carry out urgent works and renovations. The Social Reactor operates as an organization with a team of employees managing the site including a dedicated PR department, which actively promotes the project and entices new tenants and projects to the Distillery. Alex says, “We have a big reach these days from our photography and several articles, and there’s a vibe. Many people are asking us for workspaces and studios, and we’re quite known in the community now. It seems like whenever somebody needs a space in Brno, they talk with someone and then they’re referred to us and it’s like a big extended family.”

The adaptive reuse of the Distillery and creation of the Social Reactor has had a notable impact on the community. When KOGAA started, about 50% of the street-facing commercial spaces in the neighborhood were vacant. The area was more of a thoroughfare, congested with car traffic and with pavements too narrow to support a healthy retail zone. Even though the neighborhood is nearby the city center, it was undesirable.

Tomas explains, “When we started our project, we created the first public space here. Since our yard is open for about 10 hours per day, we put out greenery and chairs, and it can be used by anyone. If you are walking down the street and you just want to smoke a cigarette here, do it. If you want to use Wi-Fi, do it.”

After creating the first privately owned public space (POPS) in the area, new businesses and market stalls began popping up. Today the Distillery has encouraged five other shops to open on the same street, serving a customer base of Social Reactor tenants.  These new ventures include a doughnut shop, a Polaroid camera store, a skateboard shop and a Vietnamese restaurant. Now, the street is becoming the new popular area for young people.

LOOKING FORWARD / PLANS

In addition to the Social Reactor as a business, KOGAA’s architecture practice is booming.

“The Distillery really worked like a business card. It has brought us several adaptive reuse projects, more than we expected.

They are currently working on another large adaptive reuse project called DADA, involving the creative conversion of a former warehouse building into a space for studios and multi-functional activities.

“Based on a thorough analysis of the building’s potential and that of its surroundings” says Alex, “it was decided to adapt the property to create a new framework for residential and mixed-use. The residential section consists of spacious lofts with natural daylight and balconies facing the green riverbank.” The historic building will also house a multi-functional space on the ground floor and an office space, while the roof level has been turned into common outdoor green space for the building’s residents.

In addition to DADA, now KOGAA are ready to sign a contract to help develop another building in the spirit of their Distillery project. This time, they’re looking to convert a former school which is much larger than the Distillery–approximately 4,000 square meters—into loft apartments and commercial space.

Like KOGAA, the owner of the new site sees its potential in the building and is willing to invest. This allows for their team to start from a position of clear communication and understanding of who is doing what in order to make the project work. KOGAA are also working with furniture suppliers to explore unique partnership arrangements, finding new ways of leasing furniture and designing spaces together that highlight and promote their featured products.

ADVICE / OUTLOOK

Alex: Think big, think bigger and beyond what you can handle or do in that moment. We just needed a space for our office of 50 square meters but we took a building of 600 square meters. It was absolutely impossible for us to renovate and take care of at the time, but we did it.
 
Tomas: Be a visionnaire and trust your visions

About KOGAA

Alexandra Georgescu, MA.

Is Interior Design Director and Founding Partner at KOGAA. She worked at SPARK Architects in Beijing and for Studio Brioschi in Milan. She holds an Interior Architecture and Retail Design Master Degree at Piet Zwart Institute in Holland after carrying out her studies in the U.K., Denmark and Italy. Her projects were presented at Milan Design Week and Beijing Design Week. Alexandra has won CORE77 Interior Design award and was published by FRAME and other Interior Design magazines. Alexandra is the main curator of project Brno Design Days a Italian Design Act.

Tomas Kozelsky, MSc.

Is currently Project Architect and Founding Partner at KOGAA. He worked for international firms such as O.P.E.N. Architecture, AS.Architecture Studio in Beijing, ILA in Amsterdam and Mueller-Reimann Architecten in Berlin. Tomas completed his Masters in Architecture and Urbanism at the Faculty of Architecture of TU Delft after his studies in France and Czech Republic. He was nominated for Archiprix, published on E-Volo and tutored to several lectures and workshops. Tomas leads leads the Urban Dynamics studio on the Faculty of Architecture at TU Brno. He is also the apllied reserach co-ordinator of the Next Institute platform.

Viktor Odstrcilik, Ing. arch.

Before joining KOGAA team Viktor was Architect and Founder of Jednapulka, Architect and Engineer at Flexibuilt and Technical Manager at Freedomky. Viktor has a Master Degree in Architecure and Engineering at the Faculty of Architecture of UT Brno, Czech Republic. He is also founder and director of the student comunity at the Faculty of Architecure and was lecturer at PechaKucha in Brno, Czech Republic. Viktor is an official member of the Cultural Parliamnet of City of Brno and mannager of the Next Institute.

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In many cities in the late 1800s, the role of the architect encompassed the modern responsibilities of a developer including the purchase of land, strategic masterplanning and the design and build of homes, for example, which were often constructed without the specific end users in mind. The architect-developer was then also responsible for the selling properties and acquiring more land for the next development.

Today, the process for large building projects has changed. In the design/ build model, a land developer will often hire a general contractor to have the majority of control over the build, including the appointment of architects for the original design concept, architects for the delivery of a design, and the coordination of subcontractors for construction.

To regain power over the process, Segal encourages architects to readopt the responsibilities of the developer and own the construction management process.

There are new financial models available today which make it easier for architects to consider purchasing their own sites. With professional advice, the financial viability of a potential development project can be assessed and equity partners can be sought out to invest in the land purchase, design and construction.

By assuming the role of construction manager, architects can translate their design into construction information to be used directly by the builder and provide close site supervision. Removing the middleman of a general contractor can save time and cost and help to ensure that the original design is not lost in translation along the way. At Segal’s practice, “if you draw it, you build it”. In this way there are fewer opportunities for costly misunderstandings that compromise the quality of the finished product.

The post The Modern Architect-Developer: Benefits of Owning the Entire Process appeared first on Archipreneur.

The first thing most people think of when they think about design is ‘what something looks like’. When thinking about business, most people first think about profit and loss. Specifically, they think of financial profit and loss. What I want to unpack is: what lies between visual character and profit or loss?

In between is a process where decisions are made and work gets done. This process, I believe, is design. Design is not solely the initial idea, or what something ends up looking like once it is produced. Design is the process, and all of the component parts of a project that lead to resulting success or failure.

Our design process determined who printed the marketing brochures, on what paper, what aspects of the brand were emphasized and how the brochure felt to the touch. Not just what the brochure looked like or how much it cost.

The people that businesses hire as their consultants and team members to guide their important decisions and execute work also correlate directly with their success or failure. In the 1950’s, the value of design consulting and design-led decisions became evident when IBM’s CEO Thomas J. Watson Jr. hired the Architect Eliot Noyes as a design consultant.

Over a twenty-year period, Noyes integrated important collaborators with IBM, including Paul Rand, Charles and Ray Eames, Mies van der Rohe, Eero Saarinen and Marcel Breuer. In 1973, at a lecture given at the University of Pennsylvania, Thomas J. Watson Jr. summed up what resulted from his embrace of design over two decades when he stated: “good design is good business.”

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This is why learning about the experiences of practicing architect-developers can be invaluable for budding archipreneurs. Here, Leo Marmol of Marmol Radziner, John Kully & Mick Walsdorf of Flank, Peter Gluck of GLUCK+, and Cary Tamarkin of Tamarkin Co. talk about the ins and outs of real estate development.

The panelists stressed the importance of taking the business side of practicing seriously. Each brought their own experiences using different business models. For example, Flank build their own designs–mostly hotels, office spaces, condos– through equity partnerships. Architect-Developer GLUCK+ is split between for profit and non-profit work. They also work as contractors which allows them to add value to the project and spend less time on development- their partners do the development part. Marmol Radziner took control of the fabrication process. They manufacture cabinetry, hardware, housewares, furniture for the projects which the firm designs.

Going into property development is no walk in the park. Architect-Developer Cary Tamarkin talked about the stresses and downsides that come with developing your own designs. There are challenges like finding capital, risk mitigation, and deal-related anxiety.

The post Architect & Developer: Harvard Panel Talk with Practicing Architect Developers appeared first on Archipreneur.