- Green Medical Research Hub Bio Tower Acts As Ecosystem
- Biotower addresses economic immobility and decreasing tree coverage in Charlotte NC, simultaneously providing plants to the medical research within the highrise.
- Project: Bio Tower
- Location:
- Charlotte, NC,
- United States
- Design Team: Sophia Bullock, Drake Cecil, & Alex King
- University: University of North Carolina at Charlotte
- Typology:
- Healthcare
- Images: Sophia Bullock, Drake Cecil, & Alex King
Following text provided by the team
Biotower addresses economic immobility and decreasing tree coverage in Charlotte NC. Charlotte ranks 50th against other cities in terms of economic mobility. A large contributing factor to this is a lack of affordable medical services. Charlotte’s unique dense forestry populates fifty-one percent of the landscape, but as the city grows at one of the fastest rates in the nation, the coverage is set to decrease by ten percent in the next ten years. To combat these issues a highly vegetated block of pharmaceutical plants is introduced within the center of the city. The growth of local vegetation and four pharmaceutical plants will increase the health and ecology of the city
During the form finding phase, program, planting strategies, and environmental conditions were the driving factors in shaping the building. Starting with a simple extrusion, solar gain was first considered by rotating the form 45 degrees on the site oriented towards the south. The eastern and western walls then taper towards the south for more evenly distributed solar exposure. Each of the four medical plants are unique in space, shading, and irrigation requirements. At the base, the White Willows densely populate the site to create a spatial quality of their own and act as a transition into the tower.Â
The Florida Yews occupy the spiral which introduces terraced floors for access to greenspace for multiple floors rather than just one. The Cacao trees are placed within the facade on the north side on both east and west due to their minimal solar needs in a more controlled environment. Finally, the Foxglove plants are placed at the slanted upper most portion of the building, set back per floor to allow for additional solar gain and reduced wind resistance.
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