Title: Civitas
Location of Proejct: Memphis, Tennessee
Project Completion Date: November 2019
Firm Name: archimania

Short Description: A case study house demonstrating high-design and high-performance are achievable in the South. Civitas sits on the bank of the Mississippi River with a hot and humid climate and straight-line windstorms. It signifies that a single-family home with robust environmental ethos can contribute to the overall well-being of the community without compromising on excellent design. This LEED Platinum certified project focuses on balancing the challenges of cultural norms, climatic concerns, resiliency, and adaptability.

Architect's Statement: Civitas is poised to become the first ILFI (International Living Futures Institute) certified Zero Energy and Zero Carbon single-family home in the Americas. It is expected to achieve this while reframing the spatial and architectural expectations of an environmentally responsible house. Positioned overlooking the Mississippi River, Civitas engages in a relationship with the river as a visible and present reminder of our responsibility to the environment. It involves its site fully, connecting interior to exterior and private property with community space. Conceived as a case study to achieve a livable and resilient two-hundred-year life expectancy, with a minimal impact on the greater environment, it seeks to establish thoughtful design with an environmental ethos tackling cultural, climatic, economic, and future adaptability challenges. Civitas was informed by passive strategies embedded in the typology of the Southern dogtrot with a contemporary point of view regarding materiality, technologies, and renewables.

The client, a family with a young child, began with a combination of focused goals. From a global community perspective, they strove to meet the AIA2030 criteria a decade early—in a hot-humid climate—without bearing the visual stamp of a sustainable house. They desired to create a rich family experience through connected spatial relationships, transparency, and material continuity. Four components evolved: an elevated plinth of outdoor space, mitigating open and private zones, an open living pavilion with views of the Mississippi River, and private sleeping quarters above, connected by a circulation gallery for the family’s art collection. At the top, an intimate perch provides views of Downtown Memphis.

The open living pavilion connects inhabitants to the community and its place through layered transparencies and expansive views. Interior and exterior merge where living space is bound on two sides by a deep, inhabitable porch and courtyard; all are connected by floor-to-ceiling glass. From the private second floor, one enjoys long views of the river through large framed openings. The living space is clad in rich, polished, and ground concrete floors and a natural finish CLT ceiling and CLT second floor. The exterior material palette of white folded metal panels responds to seasonal changes through shadow, configuration, and reflection. Exterior material elements act as devices by which to measure and observe the natural environment, reflecting the daily transformations of the sky. A system of tunable expanded metal screens allows the occupant to adjust degrees of privacy and filter seasonal solar demands.

Civitas reduces its operational costs through sustainable design techniques with both passive and active systems. It operates with two-thirds solar panels on-grid and one-third off-grid, with a battery. It was recently awarded Platinum Certification [91 points] under the LEED V4 for Homes program by USGBC. It has a Measured EUI of 4, which is fully offset by solar and geothermal renewables. As a case study, Civitas’ holistic design integrates the goals of a sustainable house with those of a contemporary family and community. It stands as a model for what is achievable when design prioritizes synthetization at every scale.