Boston is home to the world’s largest home office buildings

   

As John Fernandez is a permanent professor of architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), it seems a strange combination to associate this researcher with a state-of-the-art, cross-sectoral development project. Although he is the founder and president of a company called the Metabolic Design Office, Fernandez continues to provide consulting services to real estate developers. These developers have discovered that increasingly sustainable development projects can lease office space to sell expensive condominiums. To prove its effectiveness, check out the Winthrop Center, a large, multi-purpose office and apartment complex currently under construction in Boston’s financial district.

The Winthrop Center will be the largest passive house, and Fernandez, who has a laboratory certificate, explained that when completed in 2022, it will be the largest office building in the world. “Passive houses are systems that relate to the walls, windows, ventilation and heat exchange of buildings,” he continued. "All elements need to work together. Removing any of them can significantly reduce energy efficiency." In fact, the term "passive home" is somewhat misunderstood. It was born in Europe in the late 1980s as a measure of the energy efficiency of single-family homes. This now applies to all types of projects. Part of the Winthrop Center mixed-use development office has adopted international building standards and is continuously maintained and developed by the German Passive Housing Institute (PHI).

The 690-meter-high Winthrop Center was designed by Millennium Partners in Boston and Handel Architects in New York. The building contains 812,000 square meters of office space and 321 ultra-luxury residential units. The company estimates that Handel Architects laid the groundwork for the project, saving 65% energy compared to a project of similar size in Boston, and producing 30% -50% more fresh air than a similar building. (The Idol House logo only applies to the office part of the project.)

Look at the circular entrance to the office

“Architects and developers have asked me how to make a building as sustainable and digital as possible,” Fernandez said. Upon completion, the building will also be WELL and LEED Platinum certified.

“Passive houses mean a high level of energy efficiency for buildings,” said Blake Middleton, partner at Handel Architects. . Every building will reach that level in a few years, but it's the first time. We're ahead of the curve, but we're finally catching up."

Richard Bomart, director of Millennium Partners Boston in Boston, said he was often asked if the health and sustainability characteristics of the building would be affected by COVID-19. Effect.

"People are telling us, 'It's reversing this epidemic very quickly,'" he said. But in reality, the details of this project were completed a few years ago, "Bomart said. Rice Field. He went to Amsterdam to see the project office, which he considered the most lasting progress, and appeared.

"Suddenly I realized that MIT, the world's technology center, is across the river in Cambridge, where I've been checking in on a man named John Fernandez, and I've been working with him ever since." he is the founder of a construction company of the same name, and the two worked together at Kohn Pedersen Fox in New York.

Interior design with spacious, open office design

Example of a spacious office floor in a project. 

“John’s research proves to us that a combination of sustainability, technology, health and social engagement can create happier people,” Beaumart said. Fernandez’s other suggestion was to create a floor room, a non-electromagnetic field that prevents people from using mobile devices, but they should be quietly surrounded. Fernandez also became the champion, what the team calls a "conductor." The first-floor atrium, which connects bustling Federal Street and Devonshire Street, is a park open not only to residents and residents, but to the entire city.

“The link is a square in the city,” Fernandez said. "I think the role of such a fundraising project is citizenship. I think it really resonates with the 'millennium anniversary.' It should be noted that this is the fifth time between the millennium and Handel in Boston. Collaboration; team also planned two projects from the Ritz-Carlton project on Washington Street, one Charles in 2004. The Millennium Plaza is located at the downtown intersection of the Millennium Tower, where the old Fillney Store will be located in 2011 and 2016.