soft house in hamburg by KVA matx has flexible facades that harvest energy

‘soft house’ by KVA matx, hamburg, germanyimage © prnewswire/KVAall images courtesy of KVA

many of the residential structures built today are initially designed to interact in the best possible way with the environment, to benefit fromits free renewable resources and to be built using ecologically friendly materials and methods – but often times once the structure is erectedit takes on a passive role in the maintenance of these characteristics. boston-based KVA matx has introduced perhaps the world’s most dynamicand responsive live/work typology for the 2013 international bauAustellung (IBA) whose theme is focused around the ‘city in climate change’.

see designboom’s preview coverage for additional information, here.

front elevation facing the new canal, with photovoltaic twistersimage © prnewswire/KVA

close up of glass facade and twisting textile screenimage © prnewswire/KVA

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project info:

date: 2010 – 2013status: builtclient: internationale bauausstellung iba hamburg gmbhlocation: hamburg, germanyarchitecture: kennedy & violich architecture, ltd. (kva matx) (design & construction documents); sheila kennedy aia, principal; frano violich faia , principal; veit kugel, dipl ing, senior associate; patricia gruits;kyle altman, jeremy burke, stephen clipp, iman fayyad, katherine heinrich, heather micka-smith, chris popa, shevy rockcastle, phillip seaton, alex shelly, nyima smith, sean tang, diana tomova, sasa zivkovic

project developers (iba): iba hamburg gmbh (city of hamburg)

project developers (soft house): patrizia projektentwicklung gmbhsite supervision architects: 360grad+ architektenlandscape architects: g2 landschaftstructural engineer: knippers helbig advanced engineeringclimate planning: steinbeis forschungsinstitut für solare und zukunftsfähige thermische energiesystemeheating, ventilation & mechanical engineers: buro happold

soft house manufacturing consortium: global solar energy, inc; svensson global, ag; philips color kinetics headquarters; philips eindhoven lighting; automatic devices company, inc.; l-tronics, inc.