Re:Vision Dallas: Standard's Co-op Canyon Receives Honorable Mention

Last week, Bustler published the three winning projects of the Urban Revision | Re:Vision Dallas competition, a regional initiative to create the prototype for an innovative, sustainable urban community through a series of design competitions. Here’s another exciting proposal by LA-based firm Standard that didn’t quite make it among the three finalists but earned an honorable mention from the judges.

This is how the architects explain their concept:

Standard proposed Co-op Canyon, a sustainable, zero carbon, no waste water community of modern, terraced urban dwellings overlooking a lush urban canyon. This natural design draws inspiration from the cliffside villages of the Anasazi Indians. Per Standard’s modernized design, vertical gardens comprised of front yard green allotments of native landscape and backyard green allotments of edible gardens punctuate a louvered facade, adding texture and greenery. Interstitial spaces such as the canyon floor, skip-stop lobbies, and the community kitchen encourage interaction and community connectivity. Food is the common thread that connects members of the community, with a community farm and individual back yard gardens growing food for the modern village’s inhabitants.

CO-OP CANYON is a zero carbon, no waste water cooperative community of 1,000 people living together in terraced cliff dwellings overlooking lush urban canyon. Residents gain equity in the co-op through participation in construction, agricultural, maintenance, education and conservation programs central to the sustenance of the community.

The dwelling terraces are lined with FRONT YARD gardens hosting native plants that vary in color and texture as they ascend above the canyon floor; BACKYARD gardens punctuate the ends of the terraces. Below, in the green CANYON FLOOR residents exchange knowledge and resources under the shade of trees. Small live-work and commercial spaces, child care, play and fitness spaces and the COMMUNITY KITCHEN, the co-op’s wellness center, are active with people, while native birds and insects inhabit the canyon’s plantings. The canyon walls are relatively thin, ample natural illumination and air circulation within the dwellings. At the street level, these porous walls form the threshold between the community and the urban context, linking the terraced canyon floor to the streets of Dallas. Vertical circulation to the dwellings is travels through SKIP-STOP lobbies, where an elevator stops on one level of multi-story space, and stairs lead to adjacent levels. Skip stop lobbies promote fitness and interaction; they are the DRIVEWAY spaces where residents share laundry facilities, recycling chutes, and exercise bikes.

FOOD is the thread that knits the community together. Garden allotments, both concentrated in the project’s Community Farm, and dispersed throughout the backyard terraces, allow residents to grow, exchange and share canyon-grown produce. Hobbyists grow produce for daily needs and informal exchange in the Backyard allotments, and the terraces host small gatherings and cookouts. The Community Farm is the focal point of the southern canyon, situated on the stepped terraces that link the levels of the canyon floor. Produce from the Community Farm is consumed in the Community Kitchen and sold in the market spaces below. The Community Kitchen, where the exchange of knowledge about healthy diet, cultural and family cooking techniques is a resource for healthy eating. Located adjacent to the child care center and the fitness center, the Community Kitchen offers regular classes and food tastings focused on nutrition, locally grown produce, and sharing cultural traditions. The Community Kitchen is a part of holistic approach to health that includes exercise and intergenerational social interaction encouraged by work in the canyon’s gardens.

Standard LLP: architect
Jeffrey Allsbrook, partner
Silvia Kuhle, partner
Project team:
Alexis Caver, Kazu Shichishima, Brandon Bown, Alex Babich, Gregg Oelker

Coen Partners: landscape architect
Stephanie Grotta, principal
Erica Christianson, Bryan Kramer

Thornton Tomasetti: structure
Bruce Gibbons, principal, Christopher Kahanek

IBE Consulting: MEP, sustainable design
Peter Simmonds, senior associate, Patrick Wilkinson

Davis Langdon: cost estimate
Ethan Burrows, associate principal, Jane Northey

Atelier 10: sustainable consultant
Claire Johnson

Images: Standard