Woodbridge

A proposal for housing on a narrow lot in Detroit’s Woodbridge Neighborhood which integrates passive climate control mechanisms into the buildings planning and design.

Approached by Weberman Construction to aid in achieving entitlements, Hbb Deco designed for the 100’x30’ end block corner lot, a series of 2 and 3 bedroom townhomes. The project is influenced by the terracing of pueblo architecture of the American southwest. The multiple levels of the balconies help to give privacy to outdoor space in a relatively dense housing composition.

The project takes advantage of brick as method for passively heating and cooling the building. Implementing a Flemish bond pattern with the header brick protruding. This is done to both increase surface area of the wall, capturing solar heat and storing it in the massiveness of the wall for night time dissipation. In the Summer time with the sun higher in the sky the protruding brick cast a shadow on the wall face below it producing a distributed solar shading mechanism.

The project also takes the primary vertical circulation of the home out of the conditioned envelope. As a space which is only utilized for transience, we can reduce the need to heat and cool that volume of air for the lifetime of the home. The vertical circulation is placed into a expanded and occupiable Trombe wall which also functions as a vestibule for the home. A large glass facade on the south face allows winter light to penetrate and heat a concrete floor and rammed earth rear wall, capturing day time sunlight energy to be distributed into the home. The glass wall is protected by awnings to reduce unwanted summertime heat gain.

All of these elements together contribute to the buildings expression as a materialization of a passive sustainable agenda. Form expresses function

Date: 2021
Location: Woodbridge, Detroit, Michigan
Type: Multi-family Residential
Status: Proposal
Collaborators: Weberman Construction