Mitosis - XL
The need for healthy homes has hardly ever been more apparent than during the current global condition. The current efforts to reduce the negative impacts of buildings are inadequate. Therefore the built environment must be designed in a different way. To bring regenerative collective habitation to all scales of development, Amsterdam architecture practice GG-loop, sharing the vision with Arup, is developing Mitosis: a modular building system created by a parametric design tool following biophilic and user-centric design principles.
Project Details
Program | multi-functional regenerative CLT collective housing
Year | 2020
Typology | high-density urban environment
Plot Area | 22110 sqm
Building Area | 181833 sqm
Phase | preliminary
Design Team | Gianmarco Daniele, Chelsea Fu, Giacomo Garziano
Development Team | Giacomo Garziano
Renders | Hexa Pixel
Mitosis is the follow-up of a multi-awarded pilot project completed by GG-loop in 2019: Freebooter, a pair of prefabricated CLT (Cross Laminated Timber) apartments in Amsterdam, wrapped in a parametric timber louvered facade. The building was created using biophilic principles, connecting architecture with nature in order to improve the life quality of the people who use the building. GG-loop’s ambition to bring these qualities to multiple scales has resulted in Mitosis.
The name Mitosis refers to the biological process of a single cell dividing itself into two identical daughter cells. It represents the modularity and the long-term adaptation of the system and serves as a metaphor for a flexible co-living organism where each residential unit coexists in symbiosis with all the others and its environment.
Mitosis creates regenerative ecosystems with a positive ecological footprint. It balances the technical benefits of an environmentally conscious construction with the qualities of an organic and healthy environment in which its residents coexist harmoniously.
Mitosis generates urban clusters using prefabricated timber and bio-based modules that are cost-efficient and flexible in its construction. By consciously choosing materials that capture carbon and using resources more efficiently, Mitosis constructs a net-positive built environment that produces more energy than it consumes and uses resources in a circular way.
Enhancement of biodiversity in the urban fabric has a beneficial impact on the quality of life and the environmental education of the inhabitants. Mitosis integrates plant and animal life throughout the buildings, allowing inhabitants to coexist harmoniously with the biodiversity of local flora and fauna. Mitosis is designed to co-evolve with its surrounding, by recreating ecosystems appropriate to the climate, site and residents. In this way, Mitosis can facilitate the conservation and improvement of the biodiversity that existed on the site.
