Location: Baltimore, MD
Completed: Ongoing
Size: 10000 SF
Budget: –
Services: Landscape Architecture, Architecture
Inspired by Nature
The original design for the expansive roof deck was inspired by the unfurling of a fern frond, its paths and spaces all created along its coiled length. In searching for inspiration for the redesign, the studio found a compliment to the soft geometry of the existing space by looking to the architecture of nature. The rigid balance and beauty of the honey bee comb offered a welcomed contrast.
Bringing the Inside, Outside
As flexible as the original design for the roof terrace
was, it lacked in providing areas of shade and shelter from the elements. It also lacked amenities like outdoor grill or cooking stations. The revised design addressed both omissions.
The majority of the structural improvements to the space occur immediately outside of the interior office amenity space. iO Studio created a new seating area, outdoor bar and kitchen station and enhanced planting along edge of the plaza just outside the building. This new environment enhances the program improvements of the interior renovation, providing casual, lounge style seating under meticulously detailed canopies of steel and natural wood.
The planting concept incorporates low maintenance, drought tolerant species and those capable of thriving in a space which often blanketed in heavy shade.
The Delicate Balance of Form & Function
The design and placement of the hexagonal canopy structures was intended to illicit the feeling that they are floating above the ground. Round, steel tubes painted black carry the ribbed framework of natural wood beams and joists. The layout was arrived at via a subtle modification of the interlocking pattern of the honeycomb in nature, whereby shifts in scale and placement permitted the structures to dance along the edges of the arcing paths below.
The rigid geometries of the canopies provide a visual connection to the interior architecture when experienced from the ground, while creating a contrastingly beautiful filter for the sweeping geometries when viewed from above.
