Urban Incubator

Concept

 

There is often an insatiable desire while in the office to be out in nature and connected with one another. With this structure the boundaries between each other and the built and natural landscape are blurred. In this manner the urban incubator draws from it’s industrial past while looking forward at how the spaces can engage the community, enliven office culture, and blur the boundaries of the natural and industrial forces acting on the site. 

 

Form

 

By carving out West-East horizontal and vertical voids in the building natural light and Northwestern breezes can ventilate and illuminate the structure. The programmatic organization with public spaces on the ground floor, offices on the middle floors, and event spaces on the top floor similar to the tripartite organization of the historic buildings around the site. 

 

Experience

 

On the ground floor a pier in the Willamette river draws the public out to an events pavilion for farmers markets and weddings. A pool helps to draw a younger demographic to the site while the pier overall acts as the first visual piece connecting the site to the river and downtown and allowing people to enter the site via the water. From this point people coming from the pier, esplanade, or Hawthorne bridge can bike or walk through bio-swales underneath the highways towards an outdoor food truck court, community garden, amphitheatre, or courtyards and can then engage the buildings ground floor amenities such as retail spaces and restaurants.  

 

Program

 

As an incubator space, the fundamental organization rethinks the notion of what the office’s function wants to be.  The architecture is inherently grounded in the natural landscape and to the social realm. In this manner, bike rooms and meeting spaces are in central spaces of circulation to promote collaboration and chance encounters with the various other offices occupying the building. The uppermost floors are dedicated to office culture and entertainment with a fitness center, restaurant, rooftop lounge, and community garden on the rooftop terrace. 

 

Community/ Culture

 

With roots in the site, emphasis on community engagement, and many venues to facilitate office culture the architecture allows a blending of these typically seperate pieces.

 

Water Street | Portland, OR | 2015