CLIENT
YEAR
STATUS
PROGRAM
COLLABORATORS
Private
Ongoing
Initiation
Housing
NAGY Associates
The 30-acre site between the city of Lockport and Joliet has the potential of becoming a new city centre for the local community. The development is based on the 15-minute walkable city principle. It has the opportunity to facilitate more than its direct residence.
The 36-building development has space for 820 apartments but also reserves space for commercial and retail opportunities. The goal of the site is to become a destination for its residents and the surrounding neighbourhood.
The ensemble follows the local city grids nestling in the existing structure of the city. It is mainly low-rise on its borders, with more density towards the centre. The ensemble embraces its walkability and small scale. The project aims to create an ideal community that sits between the freestanding houses and the mass high rise developments.
The site is located between the centre of Lockport and Joliet. By creating ACS FAMILIA Village, it will shorten the distance. It will make access to basic needs such as shops, local businesses, day care, community centre and religious facilities easier for its residents and neighbours.
ACS FAMILIA Village translates the values of a FAMILIA Community Building to the neighbourhood scale. Integrating a human-centred design approach to create a healthy and sustainable environment where its residents are empowered and enabled to advance in there live. Access to local educational facilities, community centres, as well as the implementation of the latest building technologies, will create a neighbourhood of the future. A place for all!
The Lockport development consists of 820 houses and various commercial and retail opportunities.
The new community will integrate the existing greenery of the surrounding neighbourhoods, adding to and enhancing the current city fabric.
The neighbourhood is designed as a car-free area which prioritises pedestrians and cyclists. Residents and visitors can use shared cars and bicycles. The new community will become a destination for its neighbours by adding new commercial, community and gathering spaces and by connecting to the existing community centre and church through a diagonal main street.
The ensemble contains 36 buildings, varying both in height and width and the positioning of each building is optimised to enhance maximum daylight. Each courtyard has a shared activity square for communal agriculture and activities.
Every urban block has its material palette, enhancing the identity of the courtyards. Still, every building in the ensemble shares similar elements, such as the window openings, to keep a connection between the various blocks and make the individual building part of a larger whole.
The Dutch word for courtyard is ‘Hof’. It stands for garden and derives from the spatial organisation, a collection of houses surrounding a communal garden. The enclosed garden feels like a safe space and stimulates community. Residents become part of each other’s lives by seeing each other’s homes and passing one another in the courtyard. This plays a significant role in the social cohesion between residents. The courtyard is the place for communal activities, and is the place where traditions are born. Activities such as sharing meals, parties and other events strengthen the cohesion.
Different routes for slow traffic connect ACS FAMILIA Village to the surrounding neighbourhoods and the cities. A diagonal main road cuts through the ensemble and connects the existing functions and the courtyards to the main square. The main square of the community has a farmers’ market, workshops, a retail and commercial area located beside the church, making it a destination for meeting and connecting with people.
It is expected that in the next 20 years our current own-your-car model will shift to a shared and driverless system. In preparation for this transition, the garage is created in a wood system, making it possible to demount the garage when the required capacity becomes less.
Part of the garages will be used as a storage facility allowing the residents to rent a storage space to their requirements. By centralising the storage of the neighbourhood, you don’t have to build expansive underground storage units under every building. Rather, it allows people to choose for themselves if storage is required. Part of the storage centre is a parcel service, a place where deliveries can be collected and stored, making it possible for people to pick up their parcels at their convenience
The ensemble implements an integrated water strategy to make sure the water of rain and storms gets adequately drained. ACS FAMILIA Villages applies a seepage strategy throughout the community. They are routing all the water to reservoirs in the courtyards and the trenches surrounding the courtyard. And when there is no water, the repository and trenches function as beautiful green beds and paths throughout the neighbourhood.
Lockport has an integrated electrical network, connecting all the buildings’ PV panels to a central battery system, located in the parking garages, making the ensemble self-sufficient in its energy production.
Construction is responsible for 23% of the world’s GHG emissions (Huang et al., 2017) and construction materials are responsible for more than 30% of global resource consumption. This is resulting in a shift from the traditional construction materials such as steel and concrete to more natural construction materials. By moving material efficiency, enhance building utilisation, different use of materials and reusable building components it is possible to reduce the GHG emission by 44%.
This project has the ambition to optimise the building process, and reduce the use of harmful materials, creating a community with a minimum carbon footprint and function as an example of new city development in the US.
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