Sodium Design

Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Tower - COTE 10
UNC - Charlotte Fall 2019 - Fourth Year Undergraduate Group Project
Charlotte, North Carolina
Stacks Image 2637
Innumerable concerns face cities across the world and our built environment must be part of the solutions to solve issues ranging from climate change to social inequity and urban sprawl. Charlotte, North Carolina a rapidly expanding, ‘New’ American city is not exempt from these issues. These issues, among others, are the fundamental prompt for this studio. We must find ways to contribute to the resolution of the issues facing our society - both locally and globally. Utilizing the 2020 AIA COTE Competition for Students as a basis, this studio sought to ‘densify’ the City of Charlotte in an environmentally sustainable way by creating a building that adds a public amenity that improves socially social or cultural sustainability of city all while making minimal impact on the environment.

Sparked by an in-depth investigation of the city each student group selected their individual sites and worked in developing their own, unique, building program articulated to improve the lives of all Charlotteans. Ranging from an urban food hub to an education based social housing initiative to a reconceptualized transportation hub; these projects tackled complex building programs through the typology of a highly sustainable high-rise building. Each design sought to resolve a complex program in a high-rise typology and provide real, calculable information to prove the environmental and social sustainability of the design.

Competition Submission