Corporate campus as the new type of an urban formation
About the project
Corporate campus as the new type
of an urban formation
The project is representing the prototype of the automated, prefabrication based system that suppose to work as the "plug and play" urban artifact that is aimed on increasing the efficiency of the mobility in the overcrowded districts and enhancing environment to increasing the quality of living for the local neighborhoods
The world's top 100 economies:

31 countries
69 corporations

A New look at the Corporate Campus
Cost
Not surprisingly, companies are driven by balance sheet issues including municipality incentives, tax abatements and credits as well as cost per square foot. Last year, for the first time, San Francisco's average office rents ($72.26 a square foot) surpassed those of Manhattan. Though less of a factor for large companies, cost has a significant impact on startups and smaller companies looking to locate or expand in the region.
Mobility
Transportation. Companies have been growing on the Peninsula, but many of their employees prefer to live in San Francisco. Because of increasingly brutal congestion in the Bay Area and weak public transit, employers such as Google, Genentech and Apple have become transit providers, offering shuttle services to bring employees to and from work.

The Fight for Talent:
Amenities. Above all else, companies are vying to attract and retain talent. As a result, they are engaged in an arms race over amenities like free meals, housecleaning and haircuts, to say nothing of salaries. Accordingly, campuses hope to locate within proximity to talent, support services and amenities.
Denser interior utilization
For reasons of both cost and culture (open offices are thought to encourage collaboration), employers have greatly increased the number of employees per square foot. Since taking over Sun Microsystems' former headquarters, for example, Facebook has doubled the number of employees in the same space. This has a major impact not only on building design but also on site planning, as the number of parking spots is usually based on half the current number of employees.
Large floorplates ... and getting larger
For many employers, a desire for the largest possible floorplates is a driving priority in buying real estate, which makes locating in more urban settings difficult. (Which is not to say there aren't plenty of companies believe that employees on different floors can still spur innovation.) Multiple buildings are often joined by bridges to create larger contiguous spaces. In most cases 30,000 to 40,000 square feet is considered essential, but floorplates up to 10 times that size have been built.
Growth — and exit — strategies
Companies are scaling up at rates that can be dizzying. Many are intent on finding structures that can accommodate that rapid growth — preferably without needing to move — but also allow for contraction or a quick exit if necessary. It may be that one of the great innovations in the corporate campus is not in architecture but in lease agreements.

Creating an architecture that will dynamically respond to a rapid change of the urban environment and will increase the mobility of the area

HOW ?
„

I thought that architecture is not permanent art, something that is completed and fixed, but rather something that grows towards the future, is expanded upon, renovated and developed. This is the concept of metabolism.

Kisho Kurokawa








Basic Principles
of Metabolism in architecture
Metabolism represented an urban environment that was responsive, replaceable and could grow in an organic way. It largely followed the 'megastructure' form that was gaining in popularity with architects and planners at the time, as a means of addressing the growing populations of urban areas and the rapidly-changing lifestyles of the post-war era.
The principles of the megastructure were that it had to be modular, capable of extension and have a framework into which smaller elements could be 'plugged' or replaced.
Agricultural City
Kisho Kurokawa, 1960
Information

  • Architects: Kisho Kurokawa
  • Location: Aichi, Japan
  • Typology: Urbanism / City planning
  • Project Year: 1960
  • Photographs and drawings: © Kisho Kurokawa
Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa designed in 1960 the "Agricultural City". Intended for the replacement of the agricultural towns in Aichi destroyed by the Ise Bay Typhoon in 1959, the accommodation was to be raised above the ground to deal with future Flooding. The grid was intended to be between 300 and 500 meters; Kurokawa challenged the assumption that the city and the country need to be in antagonism.
Agricultural cities, industrial cities, consumption cities, and recreation cities should each form an integral part of a compact community. A distinct urban system should exist between those cities. Agricultural cities have potential as future cities. And that is the reason why it is necessary to have a basic plan for their future expansion.
The basic unit of the rural area of Japan is 500 m x 500 m community centered around a shrine, a grammar school, and a temple. According to the proposed plan, roads, water services, electricity, monorails for work and other facilities are installed 4 meters above the ground. This will enable the common handling and administering of agricultural works.
the project aims to create more livable, sustainable, and affordable homes to address the new and upcoming urban challenges we'll have to face.
IKEA Future Urban Living
Rapid urbanization, an aging population, social isolation, climate change, and a lack of affordable housing all point to a need to rethink our approach to cities and urban life.
The system is designed for disassembly, unlocking a truly circular material loop where building components and materials can be reused and replaced rather than wasted.
These high-quality homes would have access to shared services and facilities, as well as a digital interface for day-to-day management.
Flexible subscription-based services, on top of a base monthly rate for essentials, allow for better deals on daily needs; each month, residents would also have the option to buy "shares" of real estate.
Development process on the site
Highway Junction
The most crowded junction on the road I-280 has 18.7 ha of a wasted space.
The aim is to invert negative aspects of the outdated infrastructure and gain the benefits for both the junction efficiency and the local neighborhood
The aim is to use all possible space
in-between the roads that will serve as the facility for the road infrastructure and load-bearing structure for the extension
Automated plato
The highway gets an extension on sides that works as a plato for the movement of the automated vehicles. The facility clusters now work as the plinth for the parking cascades that have a direct connection to the road. In the same time parking cascades have the most efficient orientation to gain as much as possible sun light for the living area that will be based on top of it.
Space in-between
Living infrastructure
The parking area has an extension that works as a cascade holder for a living modules that can be easily replaces or renovated
Living infrastructure
The parking area has an extension that works as a cascade holder for a living modules that can be easily replaces or renovated
Living infrastructure
The parking area has an extension that works as a cascade holder for a living modules that can be easily replaces or renovated
Living infrastructure
The parking area has an extension that works as a cascade holder for a living modules that can be easily replaces or renovated
Section 1-1
The section that represents living facilities and the storage area on East and West and the program for the social interaction and work in the core
Section 2-2
The section that represents fluid space for the vehicle circulation on the bottom and the public multileveled space on top
Gallery of views