Omer
Office of
HOME IS WHERE
THE GARDEN IS
CORE STUDIO III | FALL 2023
ROSSVILLE, BRONX, NEW YORK
IN COLLAB. WITH LAUREN BROWN
PROF ERICA GOETZ
On a site with a history of exploitation of people, nature, and home at the benefit of industry and the cost of human health, HOME IS WHERE THE GARDEN IS proposes a form of communal living centered around year-round greenhouse-gardening in order to rejuvenate the health and being of the people and the site.
Designed to maximize the efficiency of a greenhouse to solar and wind orientations, the structural and organizational grid for the project is rotated 45 degrees SE to enable each greenhouse core to maximize the morning sun to heat the greenhouse passively.
On the four residential levels, most public spheres of the units–their living and dining rooms–are offset into the greenhouses' lower levels to allow for residents to communally dine, gather, and even grow their own private plantings.
The uppermost two stories of the project are the functioning greenhouses that not only supplement the nutritional and cultural needs in response to Melrose's and Mott Haven's food desert state, but also provide conditions for passive systems that heat, cool, and filter the air for residents.