Civitas and the Role of Metal in Meeting a Zero Carbon World

Session Description  

This session will explore the role of metal in meeting a zero-carbon world using Civitas as a case study in process and application.

The name Civitas, translated as “community,” was given to represent the Yoakum family’s desire to create a meaningful experience through connected spatial relationships, transparency, and material continuity. While producing all the same expressive elements of its new urbanist neighbors, Civitas introduces a new composition of material and transparency while reframing the spatial and architectural expectations of an environmentally responsible house. The architect, aligned with his family, challenged the design team to integrate healthy, resilient, high-performance, and sustainable strategies to achieve the design framework for a 200-year design life cycle.

Civitas is certified LEED Platinum for Homes. Per the International Living Futures Institute, it is the first registered Zero Energy and Zero Carbon single-family dwelling in the world and is currently under review for certification. As an immersive tool for experimental thinking and design exploration, this project is a living lab laying the groundwork for ongoing and future projects within our design practice with its broad application of high-performance strategies for a variety of typologies.

Join Barry Yoakum, FAIA, Principal, archimania, and Civitas homeowner for this session to explore how:

• Salvaged structural steel was used to limit the carbon footprint for the hybrid structure
• Exterior cladding provided a low maintenance, durable finish that expressed a compatible scale to the neighboring homes
• The neutral material pallet provides a canvas for light, shadow, and texture to be featured as an ever-changing dynamic expression
• The operable screen panels provide flexible tunability to filter light, shadow, and an implied boundary around the south and western facades
• Overall integration supported high-performance goals

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